Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Barack Obama's Top Fundraiser Goes Rouge

Well, I'm not saying that he's going to cross the border and raise for the Republicans (although I think that remains quite likely), but Barack Obama has certainly lost Daniel Loeb's soul:

The New York Times reports:

Daniel S. Loeb, the hedge fund manager, was one of Barack Obama’s biggest backers in the 2008 presidential campaign.

A registered Democrat, Mr. Loeb has given and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Democrats.

So it came as quite a surprise on Friday, when Mr. Loeb sent a letter to his investors that sounded as if he were preparing to join Glenn Beck in Washington over the weekend.

“As every student of American history knows, this country’s core founding principles included nonpunitive taxation, constitutionally guaranteed protections against persecution of the minority and an inexorable right of self-determination,” he wrote. “Washington has taken actions over the past months, like the Goldman suit that seem designed to fracture the populace by pulling capital and power from the hands of some and putting it in the hands of others.”

Mr. Loeb, who manages about $3.4 billion at his firm, Third Point Partners, has articulated in a more thoughtful way what a lot of others in finance and business are saying.

“We have given a great deal of thought about the impact that public policy has on individual companies, industries and the economy generally,” he said. Third Point has sold its investments in big banks as a result of “regulatory headwinds”; got rid of its stake in Wellpoint, which Mr. Loeb described as “a statistically cheap stock owned by several hedge funds, but which we saw as being overly exposed to unpredictable government regulation”; and taken a short position against for-profit education companies as a result of “the government’s increased willingness to use its regulatory muscle.”

Mr. Loeb’s views, irrespective of their validity, point to a bigger problem for the economy: If business leaders have a such a distrust of government, they won’t invest in the country. And perception is becoming reality....

What's equally interesting is is the analysis of why most of Wall Street fell into Barack Obama's pocket:

The prevailing view is that bankers, hedge fund mangers and traders supported the Obama candidacy because he appealed to their egos.

Mr. Obama was viewed as a member of the elite, an Ivy League graduate (Columbia, class of ’83, the same as Mr. Loeb), president of The Harvard Law Review — he was supposed to be just like them. President Obama was the “intelligent” choice, the same way they felt about themselves.


It seems as if America's best and brightest aren't on Wall Street, or they would have seen this coming, like the other 46% of America did on election day 2008. And based on the clusterf*ck the Obama administration has turned this country into, one would certainly be safe in declaring that our best and brightest aren't in government either. Or in the media business, for that matter, as they are the liberal government's biggest cheerleaders.

So where are they? One thing is for sure - they ain't coming out of America's Ivy League institutions, that's for certain. What was once an expensive badge of honor is now an expensive admission of ignorance.

So where are our best and brightest? I can't say precisely, but I will say you were more likely to find him/her at the Glenn Beck rally last weekend than you are likely to find them on Wall Street, or in Washington, D.C.. You know, the same rally that the aforementioned "elites" feel obligated to mock, while taking a coffee break from f*cking up America.

Well, I suppose Daniel Loeb won't be fooled again. Of course, a lot of us were not fooled the first time.

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