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Muso
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Joined: 22 Oct 2002
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Location: The Holy city of Honolulu
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 Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2012 7:36 am Post subject: Swiss Bank Loves Obama |
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OBAMA’S SWISS BANKER
| Quote: | HEAD OF SWISS FINANCE HOUSE UBS INVESTMENT BANK IS ONE OF PRESIDENT’S BIGGEST BUNDLERS
One of President Obama’s largest financial backers is a key executive at the largest Swiss bank in the world, complicating his criticism of presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney.
Robert Wolf is president of Swiss financial giant UBS Investment Bank and chairman of UBS Americas. He has been one of Obama’s most prolific fundraisers dating back to 2006, when the former Senator from Illinois initiated his run for the White House.
Wolf has bundled more than $500,000 for the president’s reelection, campaign records show. He is but one of many wealthy bankers Obama has turned to in an effort to win a second term.
According to campaign reporter John Heilemann, Obama and Wolf first met in December 2006 in a conference room owned by liberal billionaire George Soros, who is currently embroiled in a domestic dispute with his 31-year-old ex-girlfriend.
It was a match made for the ages, Heilemann argued—the “hope and change” candidate and the sympathetic Wall Street millionaire.
Obama eagerly courted the “A-List New York donor,” who would become the future president’s “most copious cash collector in the city by far,” raising more than $500,000 for his 2008 campaign.
Wolf’s company, UBS, gave an additional $532,000, making it the 15th largest contributor to Obama’s first presidential run.
“The way Barack has taken this nation with his rock-star status,” Wolf told Heilemann in 2007, “it’s very exciting!”
Upon taking office in early 2009, Obama appointed Wolf to the Economic Recovery Advisory Board that would help craft the controversial $787 billion stimulus package.
Shortly after Wolf was appointed, UBS admitted to conspiring to defraud the Internal Revenue Service and agreed to pay $780 million to ward off a federal investigation into its activities.
Wolf was also one of several major Democratic donors named to the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. He remains a close adviser and golfing partner to the president. A recent Wall Street Journal article dubbed Wolf “a ‘fat cat’ with the president’s ear.”
In addition to his prolific efforts as a campaign bundler, Wolf has personally contributed almost $200,000 to Democratic candidates and committees since 2007, including at least $9,100 to Obama and more than $115,000 to the Democratic National Committee.
Last month, Wolf hosted a $35,800-per-plate fundraiser for the president in New York City.
Another Obama bundler, Charles Adams, also has a Swiss address, as Buzzfeed noted earlier this year; he “heads the office of the law firm Akin Gump in the Swiss capital. Adams raised more than $100,000 for Obama, according to the report.”
Despite relying so heavily on a Swiss financial institution, the Obama campaign and its Democratic allies have sought to make political hay of Romney’s Swiss bank account, which he closed in 2010.
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) suggested that Romney used to keep assets in Switzerland because the former Massachusetts governor believed “the Swiss Franc is a stronger currency than the United States dollar.”
“Gov. Romney calls the president out of touch,” Vice President Joe Biden said earlier this month. “Hey, how many of y’all have a Swiss bank account?”
Rep. James Clyburn (D., S.C.) even likened Romney to a foreign despot.
“I think there’s something to be said about people who park their money offshore and we don’t know exactly what is in those accounts,” he said on MSNBC. “You know, when we look at despots from foreign countries putting their money in Swiss bank accounts—we always have frowned upon that.”
However, there has been little criticism from Democrats and the media establishment of the president’s dealings with Wolf.
That is a marked departure from the 2008 campaign, during which critics pilloried GOP nominee John McCain for employing former Texas Senator and UBS executive Phil Gramm as an adviser.
The campaign’s reliance on wealthy bankers such as UBS’s Wolf could complicate the president’s effort to portray himself as the anti-wealth candidate, characterized by his recent push for the so-called “Buffett Rule” to increase capital gains taxes on millionaires.
The president’s effort to blame the nation’s economic woes on abstract forces such as income inequality and the shady machinations of Wall Street bankers has been undercut by controversial campaign decisions—for example, his reversal on anonymous Super PACs, which he once called “a threat to our democracy”—as well as his increasing reliance on campaign bundlers like Wolf and disgraced Wall Street tycoon Jon Corzine.
Obama, who has aggressively sought out support from the super rich, including a number of high-profile celebrities, has already far outpaced his predecessor George W. Bush with respect to the number of fundraisers attended during his first term. |
Well, there goes Obama's attempts to smear Romney for Romney's earnings.
Also of note : Why should I be more angry about what Romney does with his own money than what Obama does with my money?
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petrjanda
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Joined: 05 Sep 2003
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Location: Brno, Czech Republic
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| Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2012 8:24 am Post subject: |
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Donations from corporations should be illegal.
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There is, a not-born, a not-become, a not-made, a not-compounded. If that unborn, not-become, not-made, not-compounded were not, there would be no escape from this here that is born, become, made and compounded. - Gautama Siddharta |
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aidanjt
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Location: Rep. of Ireland
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| Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2012 8:34 am Post subject: |
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| petrjanda wrote: | | Donations from corporations should be illegal. |
BUT THEY'RE PEOPLE I TELL YOU!!!
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| juniper wrote: | | you experience political reality dilation when travelling at american political speeds. it's in einstein's formulas. it's not their fault. |
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Old School
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Joined: 20 Nov 2004
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Location: The Covered Bridge Capital of Oregon
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| Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2012 2:05 pm Post subject: |
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| petrjanda wrote: | | Donations from corporations should be illegal. |
And Unions. Donations need to be from individuals only.
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pitcrawler
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Joined: 09 Jan 2005
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Location: Oklahoma, USA
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| Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2012 7:02 pm Post subject: |
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In the 2008 election cycle, of the top 10 Mitt Romney donors, the top 7 are banks/financial companies (Including Goldman Sachs/Lehman Brothers). Two of the remaining three are Romney's own bain companies and the other is Marriott International. source
In 2012 the top 5 Romney Donors are banks/financial companies. In at number 5: "Credit Suisse Group is a leading global financial services company headquartered in Zurich." source*
*From the bottom of that page: "NOTE: All the numbers on this page are for the 2012 election cycle and based on Federal Election Commission data released electronically on Saturday, April 21, 2012. " |
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Muso
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Joined: 22 Oct 2002
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Location: The Holy city of Honolulu
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| Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2012 7:22 pm Post subject: |
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Working in overtime trying to protect Obama today, 'eh pitcrawler?
Obama's the biggest Wall Street shill this nation's ever had. Having the head of Swiss Bank UBS acting as a bundler for his campaign doesn't help his image either.
He won't be able to honestly paint Romney as some sort of tool of Wall Street and the banks, because nobody holds a candle to Obama in that regard.
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pitcrawler
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Location: Oklahoma, USA
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| Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2012 7:45 pm Post subject: |
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| [quote="The Earth wrote: |
Working in overtime trying to protect Obama today, 'eh pitcrawler? |
Oh no. Even if I worked triple overtime I could never come close to the Obama bashers.
| The Earth wrote: | Obama's the biggest Wall Street shill this nation's ever had. Having the head of Swiss Bank UBS acting as a bundler for his campaign doesn't help his image either.
He won't be able to honestly paint Romney as some sort of tool of Wall Street and the banks, because nobody holds a candle to Obama in that regard. |
And yet, as you've just read, Romney's top five donors are banks or financial institutions compared to zero of Obama's top five. Try again.
And Gingrich's got his donations from pretty much the same industry, a casino. |
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Muso
l33t
Joined: 22 Oct 2002
Posts: 655
Location: The Holy city of Honolulu
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| Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2012 7:57 pm Post subject: |
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BARACK OBAMA (D) Top Contributors
University of California $1,648,685
Goldman Sachs $1,013,091
Harvard University $878,164
Microsoft Corp $852,167
Google Inc $814,540
JPMorgan Chase & Co $808,799
Citigroup Inc $736,771
Time Warner $624,618
Sidley Austin LLP $600,298
Stanford University $595,716
National Amusements Inc $563,798
WilmerHale LLP $550,668
Columbia University $547,852
Skadden, Arps et al $543,539
UBS AG $532,674
IBM Corp $532,372
General Electric $529,855
US Government $513,308
Morgan Stanley $512,232
Latham & Watkins $503,295
Banks, Corporations, Law firms, and universities (No connection that Obama took over the student loan industry... oh no, none at all).
And that's just from 2008.
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If I had a dollar for every time capitalism was blamed for the problems caused by government, I'd be a fat filmmaker with a baseball cap |
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zixnub
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Joined: 27 Dec 2007
Posts: 64
Location: Brasschaat, Belgium
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| Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2012 8:50 pm Post subject: |
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| aidanjt wrote: | | petrjanda wrote: | | Donations from corporations should be illegal. |
BUT THEY'RE PEOPLE I TELL YOU!!! |
Over here corporations are people but unions are... nothing but a group of people. That means if a union fucks you over you can't sue them.
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pjp
Administrator
Joined: 16 Apr 2002
Posts: 16033
Location: Colorado
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| Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2012 11:15 pm Post subject: |
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| pitcrawler wrote: | | Even if I worked triple overtime I could never come close to the Obama bashers. |
No, he pretty much sucks. Pointing that out isn't bashing. Also, note, you can still recognize that and not want Romney as President. The Democrat Party really should have put up a new nominee.
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notageek
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 05 Jun 2008
Posts: 81
Location: Bangalore, India
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| Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 5:45 pm Post subject: |
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I love Swiss banks. I aspire to open an account there, someday.
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pitcrawler
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Joined: 09 Jan 2005
Posts: 150
Location: Oklahoma, USA
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| Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 5:46 pm Post subject: |
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| pjp wrote: | | pitcrawler wrote: | | Even if I worked triple overtime I could never come close to the Obama bashers. |
No, he pretty much sucks. Pointing that out isn't bashing. Also, note, you can still recognize that and not want Romney as President. The Democrat Party really should have put up a new nominee. |
And you can still recognize that Obama sucks AND the republicans suck. I mean, excluding Obama's term, what have the Republicans done for America in the last 20 years that hasn't involved massively increasing the national debt. Any economic improvement they may have made seems to have been done with borrowed money. Any idiot can improve an economy if they have an unlimited ability to borrow money and not have to think about paying it back. |
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pitcrawler
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Joined: 09 Jan 2005
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Location: Oklahoma, USA
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| Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 6:22 pm Post subject: |
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| The Earth wrote: | BARACK OBAMA (D) Top Contributors
University of California $1,648,685
Goldman Sachs $1,013,091
Harvard University $878,164
Microsoft Corp $852,167
Google Inc $814,540
JPMorgan Chase & Co $808,799
Citigroup Inc $736,771
Time Warner $624,618
Sidley Austin LLP $600,298
Stanford University $595,716
National Amusements Inc $563,798
WilmerHale LLP $550,668
Columbia University $547,852
Skadden, Arps et al $543,539
UBS AG $532,674
IBM Corp $532,372
General Electric $529,855
US Government $513,308
Morgan Stanley $512,232
Latham & Watkins $503,295
Banks, Corporations, Law firms, and universities (No connection that Obama took over the student loan industry... oh no, none at all).
And that's just from 2008. |
MITT ROMNEY (R) Top Contributors
Goldman Sachs $564,580
JPMorgan Chase & Co $400,675
Bank of America $364,850
Morgan Stanley $363,550
Credit Suisse Group $316,160
Citigroup Inc $286,015
Kirkland & Ellis $235,802
Barclays $229,650
PricewaterhouseCoopers $208,750
HIG Capital $191,000
Wells Fargo $183,100
UBS AG $182,500 <--
Blackstone Group $179,550
Bain Capital $151,500
EMC Corp $129,200
Citadel Investment Group $125,625
Bain & Co $122,800
Elliott Management $118,475
Sullivan & Cromwell $108,650
Ernst & Young $104,750
And that's just from 2012.
As for Obummer
BARACK OBAMA (D) Top Contributors
Microsoft Corp $304,690
DLA Piper $302,527
University of California $243,486
Sidley Austin LLP $234,611
Google Inc $191,719
Harvard University $177,408
Comcast Corp $164,862
Skadden, Arps et al $145,809
Morgan & Morgan $130,145
Time Warner $116,939
US Dept of State $115,757
Stanford University $103,483
US Government $101,149
Kaiser Permanente $100,100
Mayer Brown LLP $99,657
Jones Day $97,100
University of Chicago $96,152
Columbia University $95,077
Wilmerhale Llp $93,605
Debevoise & Plimpton $93,526
Notice the distinct lack of banks. Looks like Obama learned his lesson while Romney did not. |
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Muso
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Joined: 22 Oct 2002
Posts: 655
Location: The Holy city of Honolulu
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| Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 7:36 pm Post subject: |
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Obama's not even in a primary fight. Once Mittens gets his 1,144 delegates, then you'll see Obama's contributions start taking shape. I understand that you are not a US citizen, so you really don't understand how these cycles work... but if you actually think that Obama's not in the pocket of crony banks then there really is nothing left to say aside from pay closer attention.
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pitcrawler
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Posts: 150
Location: Oklahoma, USA
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| Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 8:15 pm Post subject: |
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| The Earth wrote: | | Obama's not even in a primary fight. Once Mittens gets his 1,144 delegates, then you'll see Obama's contributions start taking shape. I understand that you are not a US citizen, so you really don't understand how these cycles work... but if you actually think that Obama's not in the pocket of crony banks then there really is nothing left to say aside from pay closer attention. |
I'd advise you to wait until the facts match your assertions. What I quoted is how things stand at present. And you don't have to be an American citizen to be able to read up on things. You could argue that not being an American citizen gives me a clearer view, since I've not been bombarded with US political propaganda all my life.
And what really deserves a is your strange assertion that because Obama isn't in a primary fight he shouldn't have to gather donations. |
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pjp
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Joined: 16 Apr 2002
Posts: 16033
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| Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 10:21 pm Post subject: |
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| pitcrawler wrote: | | Any economic improvement they may have made seems to have been done with borrowed money. Any idiot can improve an economy if they have an unlimited ability to borrow money and not have to think about paying it back. |
Any idiot except Obama. But you already knew that.
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Muso
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Joined: 22 Oct 2002
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| Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 11:00 pm Post subject: |
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| pitcrawler wrote: | | And what really deserves a is your strange assertion that because Obama isn't in a primary fight he shouldn't have to gather donations. |
Then you truly are ignorant of how election cycles work. The rate of political donations to candidates sharply increases during the general election.
If you wish to think Obama's worth defending, there's nothing I can do for that as I'm not a licensed psychotherapist.
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pjp
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| Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 11:10 pm Post subject: |
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It'll be interesting to see the money in this one. Various outlets are reporting that Obama will raise ~$1bn.
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