We have to keep explaining to the media that Barack Obama in fact beat John McCain. However, I thought they understood that Barack Obama won the democratic primaries. I mention this because Jim Cramer of CNBC, who is most famous for being made fun of repeatedly by Jon Stewart, says he wants his big wall street money back from the the democratic candidates he donated to in the past. The thing is, he doesn't seem to understand who he has been donating to or that the party is under new management. First, Eliot Spitzer. It's a shame that Cramer does not follow the news, but Spitzer already spent all his money on prostitutes.
On to a more serious and less embarrassing note, we'll look at the $100,000 dollars he gave to the Democratic Party to have tea with Bill Clinton after the jump.
So Cramer donated $100,000 to the DNC to have a tea party with then President Bill Clinton. I would have thought Cramer understand that the party is under new management that does not look too kindly on the people who took his hedge fund money. At any rate, his tea party pal delivered and has long since left office. And now, 9 years later he wants his money back because he does not like the new management which the Clintons fought fiercely against?
Cramer seems to forget that the Bill Clinton fought the good fight for him and lowered the capital gains taxes so that as a hedge fund manager he could pay a lower rate than his secretary. He already got his $100,000 dollars and then some.
There is a similar theme running through the other candidates which he so generously donated to in the interest of a better future for middle class Americans. When he says he wants his money back from Gov. Corzine, who backed Clinton, I would have thought he understood that Corzine also fought the good fight for the Wall Street Democrat and lost. When he says he wants his money back from Gov. Rendell, I have to wonder whether he remembers how Rendell valiantly backed Clinton, but that in the end their establishment candidate lost.
I do understand his demands to get his money back from Newark Mayor Cory Booker though. Booker had the audacity to support this new guy, called Barack Obama, who hadn't taken a $100,000 dollar check from Cramer and was not beholden to him. Booker suckered him. And I would like to call on Booker to give the money back.
Here is his demand made at about the 9:05 mark after Cramer happily accepts praise from Rush Limbaugh:
I should note that Joe Scarborough begins the video by calling Cramer a "former supporter of Barack Obama, a life long Democrat." I can only assume that Joe assumes that as a Democrat, Cramer voted for Barack Obama in the general election. At this point, however, this statement is extremely disingenuous. I have searched and cannot come up with anything on support for either candidate during the primaries or the general election. There is no evidence that he cut a check for either candidate at any point. A search on Huffington Post 2008 contribution tracker and the open secrets database which dates back to 92 comes up with no contribution to any candidate by the Jim Cramer that is on CNBC (only a Republican businessman in Texas and a Democrat in California). Does he have a different legal name? Did he really donate the money he says he donated? Assuming he did (it would be a bizarre thing to lie about), where is the record? In fairness he does not name donations to any federal candidates. Opensecrets might not have his contributions to governors. However, it seems they should have his cool $100,000 to the DNC.
Whoever he personally supported, I think his donations and his sense of entitlement speak for themselves. Even if you were a progressive supporter of Hillary Clinton or Cramer was miraculously an "Obama supporter" during the primaries, you can't think he is anything but an entitled corporate Democrat Republican. I'm sorry Cramer, but there has been a change in management.