The American Spectator : The Spectacle Blog : Obama and Big Business, What a Surprise

Text Size

The Spectacle Blog

Obama and Big Business, What a Surprise

By Joseph Lawler on 12.10.09 @ 3:52PM

In the introduction to what is, on many levels, one of the worst pieces of journalism I've ever encountered, Matt Taibbi observes,

Barack Obama ran for president as a man of the people, standing up to Wall Street as the global economy melted down in that fateful fall of 2008. He pushed a tax plan to soak the rich.... Obama may not have run to the left of Samuel Gompers or Cesar Chavez, but it's not like you saw him on the campaign trail flanked by bankers from Citigroup and Goldman Sachs.

Here is a picture of Obama on the campaign trail literally flanked by a banker from Citigroup, Robert Rubin. The other person flanking him in the picture is Laura Tyson, a member of the board of directors at Morgan Stanley.

Here is a list of the top contributors to Barack Obama's campaign:

University of California        $1,591,395
Goldman Sachs    $994,795
Harvard University    $854,747
Microsoft Corp                   $833,617
Google Inc                        $803,436
Citigroup Inc $701,290

(Open Secrets)

So Taibbi chose the 2nd and 6th largest Obama donors as examples of people who were not Obama backers.

Now that you have a general sense of the quality of the piece (if you still aren't sure, let me mention that it doesn't improve after that first paragraph), I can disclose what it's about. The reason he sets the bankers in opposition to Obama in the introduction, however monstrously erroneously, is the better to shock the reader when he reveals that Obama is actually a huge ally of...wait for it... big business.

The piece is entitled "Obama's Big Sellout." It purports to demonstrate how the improbable (to Taibbi) alliance of Obama and Big Finance came about, through a narrative casting arch-villain Robert Rubin and vampire squid Goldman Sachs as the only bad guys that is truly too convoluted and half-baked to critique here, except to say that that Taibbi better have been high when he wrote it.

But the reason it's worth mentioning at all is to show how even the most naive liberal observer -- Taibbi's understanding of American government would elicit a derisive laugh from the average 3rd grader -- is or should be starting to notice the Democratic Party's cozy relationship with big business. Taibbi concludes his 6,400 word disaster:

What's most troubling is that we don't know if Obama has changed, or if the influence of Wall Street is simply a fundamental and ineradicable element of our electoral system. What we do know is that Barack Obama pulled a bait-and-switch on us. If it were any other politician, we wouldn't be surprised. Maybe it's our fault, for thinking he was different.

It is your fault.

View all comments (12) | Leave a comment

Pete| 12.10.09 @ 5:01PM

What a soft take. Poor guy, politics has corrupted him. Bullshit. He has been a two faced lying sack of shit the entire time. Wake up.

Hodenosaunee| 1.9.10 @ 12:18AM

Obama Campaign:
Individual contributions: $656,357,572 (88%)
Federal Funds: $0 (0%)
Other: $88,626,223 (12%)

McCain Campaign
Individual contributions $199,275,171 (54%)
Federal Funds: $84,103,800 (23%)
Other: $83,306,833 (23%)

PAC contributions for both candidates were less than 1% of total.

Brian| 12.10.09 @ 6:44PM

Mr Taibbi, It's only "our fault" if by "our" you are referring to the media for selling the nation all that Obama Brand Snake Oil. Don't include me in your little mutual blame fest.

hodenosaunee| 1.9.10 @ 12:22AM

Lawler's article is nonsense and a lame attempt to distort the facts. Obama was elected because of the unprecedented contributions he received from average Americans, and because of the donations McCain/Palin DID NOT receive from average working Americans.

Uriel| 12.10.09 @ 9:40PM

There is a bigger problem here.
These people/businesses did not give money & advice to Barack Obama in an attempt to ingratiate themselves and to avoid repercussions from Obama's socialist plans.
They have supported him BECAUSE THEY, TOO, ARE COMMUNISTS.
Sound crazy? Sure does.
It's true nevertheless.
There is a network of communist individuals with multiple Directorships on the Boards a number of large, prominent "American" Companies.
We're in deeper s#!t than we knew.

hodenosaunee| 1.9.10 @ 12:25AM

"Sound crazy? Sure does."

That's because it is crazy.
You Bush-Fascists were defeated in Nov. 2008.
Obama is no Communist.
Deal with it.

Brian| 12.11.09 @ 6:53AM

How does a non-profit like Harvard, or a state university like University of California get to make political contributions? Is there something I don't understand about what those numbers represent, or do we really let state schools and non-profits contribute to political campaigns?

Hodenosaunee| 1.9.10 @ 12:27AM

"How does a non-profit like Harvard, or a state university like University of California get to make political contributions? "

They can't and they didn't. Lawler is feeding you a bowl of BS.

martin j smith| 12.11.09 @ 7:57AM

Big business is not necessarily always in America's interests and certainly not the peasants ( that is most of us ). Big Business is for ... well you know Big Business. The system that really runs this country is small business and individual entrepreneurs--inventors,creators, tinkerers etc.
Big Buiness we are talking about are crony capitalists like in Nazi Germany for example. Fascists.

S.L. Toddard| 12.11.09 @ 10:46AM

Hear, hear Mr. Lawler! Yes indeed, "big business" - that corporate elite that owns our government and our media - owns the Democratic Party as surely as it owns the Republican. This is a *bad* thing, of course. But it's important, I think, to remind conservatives (and liberals, actually) that Big Business and Big Government are not two separate entities. Conservatives who oppose Big Government must also oppose Big Business. Liberals who oppose Big Business must also oppose Big Government. I'm not sure why this fact is so hard to hammer into people's heads. The first step in restoring any semblance of a Republic is to hurl corporate influence out of Washington as Jesus hurled the moneylenders out of the Temple.

Taibbi| 12.13.09 @ 2:06PM

Taibbi is a Tin Foil Hat conspiracy theorist who wakes up every morning and sees CIA , FBI , and Wall Street bankers in his wheaties and coffee .

Every where he turns , he sees the shadows of Goldman , Citi , JP Morgan , etc .

He is a creative writer who can spin a good tale ... the only problem is that everything is hearsay , poorly researched facts , non-facts , and disinformation .

He is a liberal who hates Capitalism and has no way to support his own ideas , but to try to negate everything he hates .....

Taibbi is a Charlatan