GOLDMAN SACHS = Obama's biggest backer?

[bidenista]

OK, I know there's been all this stuff about how Hillbama is a two-headed corporate monster, but I was still a bit surprised by a link that was posted on another thread. Barack Obama's top contributor is GOLDMAN SACHS? With a donation of

$369,078

Some other contribs:

Lehman Brothers - $229,090
JP Morgan Chase & Co - $216,759
Exelon Corp - $194,750
Citigroup Inc - $180,650
Citadel Investment Group - $166,600
UBS AG - $146,150
Time Warner - $142,718
UBS Americas - $106,680
Morgan Stanley - $104,425
Credit Suisse Group - $92,300

http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/contrib.asp?id=N00009638&cycle=2008

What's that all about? Why so much money from the rapists of our economy and media?

Hillary's contributors here. Lots of big finance behind her too, but she gets less from Goldman Sachs. Pretty depressing all round.

[JuniperLea]

1. Yep...

Corporatists all the way... very depressing.

[SammyWinstonJack]

11. Hope and change is on the way!

:evilgrin:

[JuniperLea]

22. Heh! Yeah, the face will change drastically...

The policies... not so much:)

[DUyellow]

27. The corporations didn't give it, it is individual people grouped by their employer, not a corp...

When you donate you fill out that section about your employer and your job.

[JuniperLea]

29. Oh bull...

That is the best one yet! Open Secrets is very good about putting individual names on donations.

[Connie_Corleone]

30. And those donations are grouped by employer also.

If you read the methodology section, it tells you that they are counting contributions from PACs and INDIVIDUALS who have given $200 or more to a federal candidate.

[jasmine621]

2. Wonder who will give back the most money once the housing fraud

scandal takes off?

[JuniperLea]

4. Zing!

By this time next week, most of it will be spent. Can you say "Deep Doo Doo"?

[sunonmars]

3. Yup progressive change my ass

He's as bought as all politicians, probably more if he's lying about it.

[aquart]

15. He's an excellent liar.

But a good president has to be. So it's not really a flaw.

I was actually cheered when I realized how big a liar he is.

No, what bothers me is how nasty he gets when he's victorious. Not to the admiring throngs, no. But to his defeated adversary? It's like he feels he gets a free one each time. THAT makes me VERY nervous.

And the race baiting. I can see that coming up every time Congress disagrees with him. Now, his followers don't think he started it. And I am truly impressed by the way he went about it. But it adds another layer of untouchability to a president who will already have unimpeachable power. (Because we didn't stop Bush, we have no right to impeach for anything less than butchering American babies on the floor of Congress. Any president can now do anything less than that and go scot free. Impeachment is no longer a constitutional tool. Public criticism is all we have left, pitiful weak thing that it is, and how do we use that against a charge of being racially motivated? Nobody minds attacking Hillary only because she's a woman, so I'm not afraid of Congress being careful of her. They would be jubilant if they could get something on her. But the sacred Obama?)

[EmperorHasNoClothes]

5. These aren't donations from the companies

"The organizations themselves did not donate , rather the money came from the organization's PAC, its individual members or employees or owners, and those individuals' immediate families."

[sunonmars]

6. duh, you honestly believe that

even more blind than i thought

[Fabio]

26. Are you suggesting those checks are from one source?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

7. Obama's biggest backer is Joe Six-pack.

He's smashed the record for small donations from private donors.

[cali]

8. you understand that corporations can't give money, right?

And one of the most liberal Senators was now NJ Governor John Corzine. Know what he did prior to being elected to the Senate? That's right, he was the CEO of Goldman. Furthermore, $229,000 out of $100,000 is not a huge percentage.

[sandnsea]

9. Anybody winning will receive a lot of money

And it will come from employees of lots of different companies. Edwards received the same percentage of his contributions from corporations as Obama has.

[killbotfactory]

10. Compared to over $20,000,000 generated from under $200 donations.

But whatever, he's the corporate candidate. :eyes:

[acmavm]

12. THIS IS ONLY ONE of many reasons why I say this guy is

a phony.

[in_cog_ni_to]

25. ditto that. n/t

[UALRBSofL]

13. Interesting Facts

Do you think it has teeth in MSM?? Just asking.

[rodeodance]

14. yup--he is corporist all the way--but people afraid to be critical of him least

the racist label get tossed out .

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

16. Something to consider in this regard...

And this holds true for both Hillary and Obama.

The smart money on Wall Street isn't ideological. Sure, they want to make (lots of) money, but they don't give two shits about social issues and they want an economy that will continue to allow them to make (lots of) money in the years to come.

Conservative Economics is a trainwreck. Sure, deregulation has allowed them to make big profits, but those are both one-time and short-lived. Long terms growth is good for the guy working the factory floor (assuming we still have factories is a few years) and it's good for the suits in the boardroom. The smart money knows that this economy can't go on forever -- it probably can't go one for another decade.

The only way to ensure the long-term stability of the U.S. economy is to get the ideologues out of the White House and out of Congress. To that end, don't be surprised if you see some heavy weights on Wall Street giving to the Democrats in this election cycle. Bill Clinton wasn't my favorite Democrat, but Wall Street (other than the Wall Street Journal, of course) loved the big lug for balancing the budget.

[karynnj]

17. Those numbers are the sum of money contributed by people working for

those companies. There is nothing here.

[quiet.american]

18. Here's some stuff you probably don't realize about Goldman Sachs --

http://www.morehouse.edu/news/releases/archives/001042.html

ATLANTA, GA and NEW YORK, June 5, 2007 -- The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE: GS) and Morehouse College today announced that Goldman Sachs has donated $2 million to endow The Goldman Sachs Leadership Chair in Civil and Human Rights at the College. The first academic to hold the Chair will be the new director of the Morehouse College Martin Luther King, Jr. Collection, consisting of 10,000 pieces of the late Dr. King’s writings and memorabilia. King is a 1948 alumnus of Morehouse College.

"This generous donation represents yet another significant milestone in our ongoing partnership with Goldman Sachs," said Dr. Walter E. Massey, President of Morehouse College. "Thanks to this gift, we will be able to fulfill one of the most important aspects of our stewardship of the Morehouse College Martin Luther King Jr. Collection - making the papers available to scholars and others interested in studying the works of our most prominent alumnus."....

There is a connection between Goldman Sachs and Morehouse dating back nearly 100 years. John Hope, the first black president of Morehouse and Walter Sachs, the son of one of the founders of Goldman Sachs, played significant leadership roles in founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In 1906, Hope joined W. E. B. Du Bois and others in the Niagara movement. He was the only college president to participate in the protest meeting, which culminated with the founding of the NAACP. He later served on the advisory board for the group. In 1909, Walter Sachs served as the first treasurer and chairman of the finance committee for the NAACP. He was an early figure in the civil rights movement and helped the organization establish special funds to promote an anti-lynching crusade and take legal action against discrimination.

Goldman Sachs has actively recruited at Morehouse for a number of years and today there are 39 Morehouse alumni on its professional staff.

Given this history, it seems like donating to Obama's campaign would be a natural extension of it.

As for the rest of them, I'd rather they give the money to Obama than Guiliani, Huckabee, Romney or McCain.

[ProSense]

19. Hillary: $350,050 and

Jon Corzine, former Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, is a Hillraiser.

Hillary: Goldman Sachs $350,050

These are the numbers that are telling:

Hillary:

Individual contributions $79,644,559 88%
PAC contributions $748,052 1%
Candidate self-financing $0 0%
Federal Funds $0 0%
Other $10,543,177 12%

more

Obama:

Individual contributions $79,218,370 99%
PAC contributions $6,775 0%
Candidate self-financing $0 0%
Federal Funds $0 0%
Other $1,031,282 1%

link

[Connie_Corleone]

20. People who work at those corporations gave money to Obama.

I work for a major corporation (I'm not even close to being an executive). My donations are going to be in that total for the corporation.

It isn't as sinister as it looks.

You have to put down your employer when you donate.

[BenDavid]

21. well that's alright, we have Robert Rubin on the HRC team....

[THUNDER HANDS]

23. Goldman Sachs has 22,425 employees

Assuming just half of those 22,425 employees donated to Obama, that's $32 per person. If a quarter of them did, that's $64 per person.

The max a person can donate is $2,000. If you want to assume that everyone at Goldman Sachs donated that much, that's only 184 people. And I doubt only 184 people out of a company with over 20,000 employees donated to Obama.

[Fabio]

28. dont get rationale around here, bub

And go put your fancy numbers straight up your #*&#@!

lol

[ihelpu2see]

24. wow, they don't list my $300+ that I have given to Obama?? nt

[gravity]

31. Wow, Goldman gives more to the Democrats than republicans

I wasn't expecting that

For 2008, 72% Dem 28% Repub

"The firm tends to give most of its money to Democrats. Goldman Sachs' former chief executive, Jon Corzine, served in the U.S. Senate as a Democrat from New Jersey. He's now the state's governor."

http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.asp?ID=D000000085