‘Twas just four years ago that Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) was displaying such fundraising prowess that he decided to opt out of the public matching fund financing system for presidential elections, believing that he could raise enough money to outspend Senator John McCain (R-AZ) in the general election campaign. It broke a campaign promise — The Washington Post, not exactly a bastion of conservatism, gave him three “pinocchios” — but was hardly a surprise. Senator Obama’s campaign spent $740.6 million, leaving everybody else in the dust, while Senator McCain spent $227.7 million. From September 1 through November 24, Mr Obama’s campaign outspent Mr McCain’s by a four-to-one margin.
What a difference 3½ years of incompetency makes!
Romney outpaces Obama in June fundraising
By Dan Eggen and T.W. Farnam, Monday, July 9, 1:27 PM
President Obama has fallen behind Republican Mitt Romney in monthly fundraising totals and may now be the underdog in the 2012 money race, given the juggernaut he faces of conservative groups with unlimited contributions at their disposal.
The trend has set off at least a mild sense of panic at the Obama campaign, which warned donors on Monday: “We will get beat if this continues.”
The Romney campaign announced Monday that it raised an eye-popping $106 million last month in conjunction with the Republican National Committee, compared to just $71 million announced by Obama and the Democratic National Committee. The $35 million gap is wider than it was in May, when Romney and his party allies raised $17 million more than the Democratic side.
The momentum shift marks a change in fortunes for Obama, whose 2008 victory was propelled by a breathtaking fundraising operation that brought in $745 million by Election Day, much of it fueled by grassroots donations. In September 2008 alone, Obama and the DNC brought in $193 million.
Much more at the link. Your Editor is proud to note that his contribution was part of Governor Romney’s fundraising total, and he anticipates contributing more in the future.
While Senator Obama liked to claim that his contributions were all from the little people in 2008, he raked in the dough from corporate contributors and Wall Street firms as well. It is no surprise to anyone who pays attention that the corporations and Wall Street investment firms hedge their bets, and contribute to both sides, but Senator Obama outpaced Mr McCain in corporate fundraising, especially after it became apparent that the junior Senator from Illinois would win the election.
However, it seems, at least according to early reports, that the wealthy contributors are not hedging their bets as much this year, at least, not so far. It’s pretty simple, really: most wealthy people are wealthy due to business, and President Obama is simply not seen as either very business-friendly or a competent economic manager. A noticeable slowdown in gross domestic product growth and a decrease in corporate profits will do nothing to increase business’ confidence in President Obama. Add to that the fact that Mitt Romney is a businessman himself, someone who has run, and run successfully, large corporate ventures as well as the rescuing the Salt Lake City Olympic organizing committee, and businessmen see a candidate who understands them, who understands business, and who understands what it takes for a business to earn a profit.
Some of our friends on the left seem to see business as the enemy, but five out of every six Americans who have jobs, work for private businesses; the jobs of the American worker depends upon the businesses for which they work being successful and earning a profit.
And so, it looks like American business is putting its money where its collective mouth is. American businessmen are mostly unconcerned about same-sex marriage or whether Mr Obama was secretly born in Kenya or whether Michelle Obama blows too much of the taxpayers’ money on vacations. American businessmen have more important things on their mind than abortion or tuition vouchers for private schools. Most of them are even content with the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act, as long as the Administration doesn’t get stupid with burdensome regulations — which is always a possibility with this crowd! — because a lot of them see it as stabilizing their costs vis a vis their competitors, though smaller companies which had not previously offered health insurance plans for their employees don’t like it one bit. What the American businessman is concerned with is business, with whether or not his company will make a profit tomorrow, next week, next month and next year. And the economic record of President Obama and his Administration has been so dismal that businessmen just don’t like it. The Chamber of Commerce despises the President and President Obama has just as much respect for the US Chamber of Commerce as they do for him.
President Calvin Coolidge once said, “the chief business of the American people is business.”1 Without business, the vast majority of Americans would be without jobs. In a time where prosperity is our greatest concern, and increasing the number of jobs for the American worker the most obvious issue, it is only through making American private enterprise more profitable that real jobs can be created . . . and the American businessman doesn’t appear to believe that the re-election of President Obama will help with that.
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- President Calvin Coolidge’s address to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Washington D.C., January 25, 1925. This is frequently misquoted as being, “The business of America is business.” ↩
CNBC reporter Robert Frank explains why the wealthy in Maryland are voting with their feet. An excerpt from his 9/7/12 article follows.
[Edited to add hyperlink; no changes made to text. -- Editor]
Even the crooks are running away from excessive taxes. The UK DAILY MAIL has the report, 9 July 2012.
The article failed to note that Marc Rich was indicted on more than tax evasion, he was also charged with trading with enemies of the US, specifically with violating the restrictions on trading with Middle Eastern dictators.
His pardon was facilitated by none other than our current Attorney General, Eric Holder, the dirty rat. Denise Rich made big campaign contributions (pay-offs) to Bill Clinton and Eric Holder guided the pardon around DOJ obstacles. Holder was a crook then, and he’s a crook now, the difference is he’s got blood on his hands now.
Why wouldn’t wealthy Marylanders head for the Sunshine State, if they can do so and still preserve their income? It’s a basic Economics 101 assumption, that people act in what they perceive to be their economic better interests.
But, maybe it’s the Democratic method of wealth equalization: if you chase off the wealthy, then the remainder of the people don’t have such great disparity of income. That their average wealth is now lower, well, that’s just an unfortunate side effect, collateral damage, as it were.
True, but Senator Obama’s 2008 contributions, and President Obama’s 2012 contributions, have a much larger middle and poor demographic than McCain and Romney respectively.
I argue that the slowdown is essentially out of the President’s control, but due to both global and domestic headwinds, global because of Euro problems, domestic because of extremist behavior on the part of extremist Republican obstructionists in Congress.
I give credit to Romney on his Olympics rescue success, but that’s it. I also credit him for his successful health insurance program in MA, good enough that the Dems essentially copied it, which Romney, of all people, the father of the program, now rejects. Regarding Bain, that is a major negative based on making huge profits for outsourcing and eliminating American jobs. Thus, the Olympics is all he has left for a record to run on, which is pretty thin! And then there are his off-shore accounts to avoid paying US taxes, exactly what Hoagie here admits to doing. It’s legal, but it is definitely anti-American.
The problem is that maximizing income has become the holy grail for business folks and Republicans. The old fashioned idea of an unspoken allegiance to one’s employees and the area in which their business is located has been discarded, out of greed, which on a large scale is dragging this nation down. The Germans are an example of the old fashioned form of allegiances, and they have been quite successful from a business standpoint as a result: better healthcare, longer vacations and holidays, less disparity of income. We can learn from them, but the American right wing will have none of it: less citizenship, more greed. That’s their proscription for happiness: their own!
In 2008 Obama’s website accepted electronic donations from foreign countries. Obama’s 2008 and 2012 websites both turned off all credit card security features.
Why is that?
First of all, koolo, I suspect that the allegations contained therein are bogus. I mean, there are American voters living world wide who deserve the right to vote.
Secondly, since I am a consistent donor via on-line to President Obama’s reelection campaign, I received this e-mail request today:
So I made a quick donation, and here is the response I got by e-mail:
So you are wrong again, koolo. Facts matter!!!
Please release my last post, a counter to koolo’s previous allegation, from moderation. Thanks!
Interesting that John Hitchcock, an administrator for this blog, who has been on line here since my post in moderation, has not released it, thus demonstrating his chickensh*tish behavior.
Here is one other notification, other than the one in the post under modertation, which I received following my “quick donation”.
So credit card security is maintained, contrary to koolo’s ignorant allegation.
Extremist Republicans, in addition to voter suppression, will do anything they can to cut off the votes and cut of the funding for the Obama campaign. This is all part of their bag of dirty tricks, for which they have a very well earned and deserved reputation for the Machiavellian approach to justify using any means necessary to obtain the desired result. For shame on that!!!
And what do we get in response from our school teacher on this blog on another thread here: The Finger! Figures!!!
From someone who continually denies basic reality, you yourself as a source has no credibility whatsoever.
What else does one deserve when he continually asks for citations for things that have been proven/shown time and time and time again? Oh, and are you still smacking your wife around? (But I could be wrong.)
Indeed. As if Hitchcock doesn’t have other things to do with his time during this part of the day than to hang around and release your posts from moderation. We’ll keep this in mind the next (and inevitable) time you’re not heard from again after being caught in one of your myriad lies. Y’know, like how the healthcare bill included the term “tax.”
Koolo is correct, Obama’s 2008 campaign deactivated the security features on credit card contributions to conceal the sources of his financing which allowed illegal contributions from foreigners to go undetected. Obama broke campaign finance law and made sure the evidence of his crime couldn’t be collected. Which was itself a violation.
Which was but one of Obama’s underhanded tactics. He initially agreed with John McCain to limit spending to federal limits. But, when Obama found he could raise more money by rejecting federal funds he reneged on his pledge.
Obama isn’t a man of his word, he’s proved it. Koolo referenced it and Perry pretends it’s not so. Well it is so. Obama’s a liar and so is Perry.
No citations yet, koolo. Instead, in addition to the finger, you come back with another insult. Could it be that you are the one beating your wife, assuming you even have one, as I cannot imagine anyone putting up with your obnoxious behavior, you know, the insults, including the finger. Now where are your citations?
Show me the lies, koolo. Disagreeing with you or John H. does not constitute a lie, except to your weird way of thinking. And btw, it takes about ten seconds to release a post from modification, so your manufactured/flimsy excuse for John H. does not cut it. Instead, this is typical of John’s aversion to free speech, as he also restricts me from commenting on his threads by deleting my comments. I’m sure you support him for that, demonstrating how weak you people really are, because you won’t stand up to a disagreement with your ideology.
No one ever said the “health care bill” included a tax, except the SCOTUS. Call it what you will, the penalty/tax/fee will be administered by the IRS, which was enough to render the bill constitutional. So stop squealing like a stuffed pig that you act like. How much do you weigh, koolo?
That’s a serious charge, ropelight, therefore: Citation please!
Wrong. My 11:30 post included one which is all sourced.
Just look above. You usually have at least one in each post.
Wrong. You did in the thread about the pending SCOTUS decision. After days of avoiding people pointing to your lie, you grudgingly then had to admit you erred. So, see? You lied yet again here.
[caption id="attachment_4401" align="alignright" width="546"]
The Top corporate political contributors, as found at OpenSecrets.org[/caption]
Editor, you might want to make use of this chart proving the Corporate world does not have a political home but works both sides of the aisle with equal ease. Contrary to the claims of the rabid Left and contrary to the actions of Unions and their forced political contributions from unwilling (and often opposed) little people.