SOURCEWATCH.COM The Center for American Progress was begun in 2003 with funding from philanthropists Herbert M. Sandler and Marion O. Sandler. It is a Washington, DC-based liberal think tank created and led by President and Chief Executive Officer John D. Podesta, the head of Barack Obama's presidential transition team after the 2008 election and former Chief of Staff for President Bill Clinton.
In 2009 CAP's Progressive Media project emerged as a major communications war room on behalf of Obama's domestic and foreign policy agenda and CAP became a strong advocate for escalation in Afghanistan. Progressive Media is run through the Center for American Project Action Fund, the more political 501(c)4 arm of CAP. It coordindates closely with the Common Purpose Project, an effort to create message discipline among the pro-Obama organizations, with a direct tie to the White House.
CAP is the parent organization of Campus Progress. The Center publishes a daily emailed Progress Report, described by the National Review to be "The most aggressive, most energetic opposition research in politics."
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Item on Sandler's:
Once Trusted Mortgage Pioneers, Now Scrutinized / NYT / December 25, 2008
Herbert and Marion Sandler, long viewed as model citizens of the mortgage industry,via their company Golden West Financial Corporation (which they sold to Wachovia for some $2 Billion), have been swept into the debate over who is to blame for the mortgage debacle.
The two were really irked when SNL satirized them.