the Wall Street Journal in today's paper is reporting Obama is getting the endorsements of three former SEC chairs, one each from the Bush, Reagan and Clinton eras! More after the jump...
the WSJ article gives us some background on the three men...
Three former chairmen of the Securities and Exchange Commission will publicly endorse Democratic Sen. Barack Obama's bid for the presidency Wednesday, including one who served under President Bush.
William Donaldson, who was SEC chairman for about 2½ years from early 2003, along with Clinton and Reagan appointees Arthur Levitt and David Ruder, will join former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker in endorsing Sen. Obama, his campaign said. Mr. Volcker endorsed Sen. Obama in January.
[William Donaldson]
In a statement released by the campaign, the four men said they believed Sen. Obama would take a "reasoned approach" to "balanced regulatory reform." As with rival presidential candidates Sens. John McCain and Hillary Clinton, Mr. Obama has advocated revamping financial regulations to head off a repeat of the current credit crisis. Unlike the other two, Sen. Obama has said he would consider raising the capital-gains tax rate from its current 15% -- a move that could have a profound effect on the financial industry.
It seems as if Obama has Wall Street on his side as the one who will best take care of America's money...
The endorsements come on top of the lead Sen. Obama and the Democrats have shown in securing campaign contributions from employees of Wall Street firms this election cycle. Through March, the latest data available, employees of banking and finance companies have favored Democratic presidential candidates over Republicans by 55% to 45%, according to OpenSecrets.org, a campaign finance Web site operated by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. Among candidates over that period, Sen. Obama has raised the most -- about $9 million -- with Sen. Clinton raising $8.5 million. Sen. McCain has raised $5.7 million from those employees, putting him behind Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani, two Republican candidates who dropped out of the race earlier this year.
On a smaller scale, Federal Elections Commission data show Sen. Obama has received more than rivals from people who identify themselves as employees of the SEC. He has received $5,200 from them, compared with $3,000 for Sen. Clinton and nothing for Sen. McCain. Interestingly, one of the few places Sen. McCain holds an advantage is within the ranks of Mr. Donaldson's current employer, Perella Weinberg Partners, where employees have donated $13,000 to his campaign, compared with $2,700 for Sen. Clinton and $1,200 for Sen. Obama.
The article also points out that Wall Street is very worried about what McCain and his third term economic plan of W will do to our economy...
Wall Street may remain leery of Sen. McCain; the Republican candidate has offered few concrete proposals for improving the nation's financial outlook and preventing future crises in the credit markets. Although he has begun speaking more frequently about the economy, Sen. McCain has repeatedly said his expertise is foreign policy, not markets. Words he uttered to reporters in December, "The issue of economics is not something I've understood as well as I should," are likely to haunt him this fall.
Hopefully this will pivot the commentary today towards the General Election and how much better Obama is at handling the enormous economic problem Americans are suffering through!