don’t try to catch a falling knife
It is like building a lean-to against a hurricane.
There are certain immutable truths, for Democrats. One is the same for politics as it is for common investors: don’t try to catch a falling knife.
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Feral Scholar
Making the Connections
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Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.
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Legume Sam:
A lot of the “radical” and “progressive” sources claim that the ‘08 election is the Democrats’ to lose — yet the latest Tribune Corp. poll claims that McCain is practically in a dead heat with Obama and leading by several points over Clinton. What accounts for the disparity in projections?
4 March 2008, 9:46 pmStan:
Dunno. But I am loathe to write off the abilty the Democratic Party has to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. They are so completely imbricated with the same funders that support both parties that a popular position, like appearing sometimes to sort of oppose some aspects of NAFTA, is already out of the question.
The Center for Responsive Politics has long maintained an excellent campaign finance database at opensecrets.org. In particular, the Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate (FIRE) sector (rentier sector) gives money to everyone who is vaguely viable. It is Obama’s largest sector. It is among Clinton’s.
We like to call it “finance capital,” the very guys who have gotten us into the messes we are in.
Watch FIRE’s trends by election cycle.
Clinton’s biggies:
Goldman Sachs $426,100
Morgan Stanley $368,670
Citigroup Inc $353,900
EMILY’s List $283,142
Lehman Brothers $254,400
JP Morgan Chase & Co $231,220
National Amusements Inc $217,500
Skadden, Arps et al $198,610
Greenberg Traurig LLP $185,400
Kirkland & Ellis $182,550
PricewaterhouseCoopers $173,650
Merrill Lynch $165,750
Time Warner $163,650
University of California $161,318
Microsoft Corp $152,570
Latham & Watkins $148,788
Cablevision Systems $146,013
Bear Stearns $145,090
Patton Boggs $142,550
Obama’s biggies:
Goldman Sachs $474,428
Ubs Ag $298,180
JP Morgan Chase & Co $282,387
Lehman Brothers $274,147
National Amusements Inc $265,750
Sidley Austin LLP $251,657
Citigroup Inc $247,436
University of California $239,944
Skadden, Arps et al $228,520
Exelon Corp $226,661
Harvard University $225,891
Jones Day $213,825
Google Inc $192,808
Time Warner $190,091
Morgan Stanley $190,026
Citadel Investment Group $173,950
Kirkland & Ellis $163,126
Latham & Watkins $160,842
WilmerHale LLP $155,788
Jenner & Block $151,447
McCain’s biggies:
Blank Rome LLP $188,200
Merrill Lynch $177,475
Citigroup Inc $161,000
Greenberg Traurig LLP $150,987
Goldman Sachs $104,950
IDT Corp $84,850
Univision Communications $82,000
Credit Suisse Group $81,700
Bank of New York Mellon $79,300
Bridgewater Assoc $74,400
JP Morgan Chase & Co $74,200
MGM Mirage $70,400
Lehman Brothers $70,150
Blackstone Group $66,250
Irvine Co Apartment Community $66,100
Wachovia Corp $64,650
Morgan Stanley $63,851
Pinnacle West Capital $61,700
Cisco Systems $60,650
UBS AG $56,465
Now, who do we all have in common for all three candidates, boys and girls?
Goldman Sachs
Morgan Stanley
Citigroup
Lehman Brothers
JP Morgan
… and so it goes, and if the list goes below the top 20 or so, the pattern is even more stark… and cynical. Or check the two-out-of three correlations, then wait for a presumptive Dem nominee and watch the money flow like water. No matter who wins, we can see who is in charge. When I did a similar crunch in the 2000 primaries for Bush, McCain, Gore, and Bradely, these same patterns were there. This has not changed.
5 March 2008, 6:59 am