Nearly 80 percent of those who collected more than $500,000 for Obama took key administration posts.

[woo me with science]

Obama rewards big bundlers with jobs, commissions, stimulus money, government contracts, and more
http://www.publicintegrity.org/2011/06/15/4880/obama-rewards-big-bundlers-jobs-commissions-stimulus-money-government-contracts-and

By Fred Schulte, The Center for Public Integrity
2:00 am, June 15, 2011 Updated: 12:19 pm, May 19, 2014

More than two years after President Obama took office vowing to banish “special interests” from his administration, nearly 200 of his biggest donors have landed plum government jobs and advisory posts, won federal contracts worth millions of dollars for their business interests or attended numerous elite White House meetings and social events, an investigation by iWatch News has found.

...
The iWatch News investigation found:

• Overall, 184 of 556, or about one-third, of Obama bundlers or their spouses joined the administration in some role. But the percentages are much higher for the big-dollar bundlers. Nearly 80 percent of those who collected more than $500,000 for Obama took “key administration posts,” as defined by the White House. More than half the ambassador nominees who were bundlers raised more than half a million.

• The big bundlers had broad access to the White House for meetings with top administration officials and glitzy social events. In all, campaign bundlers and their family members account for more than 3,000 White House meetings and visits. Half of them raised $200,000 or more.
...
The cluster of appointments among top bundlers suggests that the size of the donation may have been a factor at least in getting a foot in the door. Less than one in five at the $50,000 level got an administration position. Half of $200,000 bundlers were picked for some post; 80 percent of the $500,000 bundlers were appointed. (Some have since left the administration while others remain in their posts.)

Much, much more at link. It's an old article, but updated in 2014.

[kentuck]

1. Obama is a lot like Clinton...

in that he believes that money is the mother's milk of politics. He equates money with power. What money can't buy isn't really worth having.

[marym625]

2. and so it goes. ....

K&R

[woo me with science]

3. Also...see these posts by RiverLover:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=5959147

and

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=5958965

[KoKo]

11. Good Links, also. n/t

[JDPriestly]

14. Corruption!

[fredamae]

4. Half a Mil? Thats the

starting bid? Good to know.

[merrily]

6. Sounds like a lot, but really, it's astonishing how little we get sold out for.

Sometimes, it's a campaign donation of low five figures, even four. Maybe not that low at the Presidential level, but for Congress, yes.

[woo me with science]

8. It is astoundingly low, isn't it.

[joshcryer]

22. 200 max donors.

Not too bad at all. Gives me an idea or two.

[merrily]

5. Rec only for visibility and not because I approve of the kind of cronyism described by Schulte.

The first term, they have to ensure donations for the re-election run. The second term, they have to ensure donations for the Presidential Library and post-Presidency cash flow.

[aikoaiko]

7. Well, bundling up a half mill is a demonstration of political acumen.

I can see how someone who can do that would be useful in many political appointments.

[joshcryer]

16. Yep.

It's not like Obama sat down and said "wow, this dude earned X amount of money." It's more that Obama saw the person a lot, they were at a lot of fund raisers and events, they were in the know, they made friends, contacts. They helped write legislation, they stayed up nights thinking about how to get a given bill passed, they contacted the lobbyists you'd agree with, etc.

[vi5]

26. Which is in fact part of the problem.

We need people in key posts who make decisions not based on the politics and optics but on the effectivity of the decision being made and whether it is in the best interest of the department in question and the country as a whole.

[Zorra]

9. The system is completely honest and forthright. This is just a coincidence.

Clearly.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

10. Kinda like putting wealthy sellers of Hair Growth products in charge of HEW.

As long as they cough up the contributions.

[Octafish]

12. And to think Don Siegelman remains in prison...

From the great DUer autorank:

Elena Kagan - Willing Accomplice

By Michael Collins

Then, when Siegelman appealed his case to the Supreme Court in 2009, President Obama's Attorney General dispatched Solicitor General Elena Kagan to argue against the appeal Iii in November.

Before accepting the case, Elena Kagan knew or should have known: that the U.S. Attorney who began the Siegelman investigation was closely tied to Karl Rove; that Siegelman never benefited personally from the contribution to an education funding initiative; that the case was so outrageous, forty-four attorneys general petitioned Congress; and, that the presiding judge in the case owned a major interest in a defense firm that received a $178 million federal contract between Siegelman's indictment and trial, a massive conflict of interest.

Most revealing, before her argument against the former governor's appeal, Kagan knew or should have known the following. After two charges had been dropped in a 2009 appeal, Justice Department attorneys recommended a twenty year sentence instead of the seven years already rendered. Fewer offenses for sentencing meant thirteen additional years by the strange logic of federal justice.

Kagan knew or should have known all this and more. That didn't stop her from arguing that Don Siegelman should be kept in jail. ...

That judgment is that Elena Kagan was a willing accomplice in one of the most outrageous political prosecutions of our time.

CONTINUED...

[JDPriestly]

17. Thanks. The Siegelman case is shameful.

Obama should have pardoned Siegelman long ago. Siegelman should never have gone to prison.

He went to jail for doing what virtually every other politician does routinely.

[joshcryer]

20. Siegelman went down due to a corrupt AG.

Karl Rove, the Bush administration, and coerced testimony. Siegelman will likely be exonerated eventually.

[JDPriestly]

21. He should be out of prison right now. That Siegelman is still in prison does not speak well for

the Obama administration.

[joshcryer]

25. Obama doesn't do pardons much.

Most of his pardons are people who already served their sentence but went on to be productive citizens, he's only commuted the sentence of 10 people, all drug charges, most of whom served many years in prison.

We'll see if he pulls a Bill Clinton style mass pardoning before he leaves. I'd like to see Manning and Snowden in there as well. But I doubt it.

[Enthusiast]

19. +1

[ileus]

13. Those are the good guys...if it's money our way it's okay.

[NightWatcher]

15. Somebody lend me $500K. I want to be a Marshal

No wait, Ambassador to Holland.

[joshcryer]

18. It's not that hard.

You just have to get around 200 people to donate the max contribution to the President, then you'd be in the 80%.

[20score]

23. Thanks for posting this!

[Rex]

24. You can't really expect a plutocracy to work like a democracy at all.

In the game of life, the wealthy win. Every time.