Call it cynical, call it "pragmatic", call it what you will. Obama is taking campaign money from the folks whose actions he decried as orchestrating "less than reputable deals" in the private equity business.
On the same day his campaign launched an attack on Mitt Romney‘s record in private equity, President Obama is attending a big-dollar fundraiser at the Manhattan home of one of the industry’s top figures.
Hamilton “Tony” James — the president of the Blackstone Group, the nation’s largest private equity firm — is hosting a $35,800-a-head dinner for Obama, with 60 Democratic allies expected to attend, according to a campaign official. Many in attendance are expected to have ties to the private equity sector.
James donated $35,800 — the legal maximum to Obama’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee — in November 2011, according to Federal Election Commission filings. He was also a guest of the Obamas’ at the most recent White House state dinner in honor of British Prime Minister David Cameron, joining more than three dozen of Obama’s campaign bundlers who also attended.
The Obama campaign has been critical of other Blackstone executives — those who have donated to Mitt Romney’s campaign — accusing them of “betting against America” and doing “less-than-reputable” deals that resulted in outsourcing and layoffs. It has not singled out James for criticism, though the company profited from many of those practices under his leadership.
Is this your definition of pragmatism? That monies are collected from some of the same criminals who orchestrated the financial meltdown, none of whom have yet to be prosecuted or see the inside of a federal prison. We bailed these suckers out and those bailouts have not been paid back, according to a, um, reliable source, the government overseer of the TARP bailout, Christy Romero . Get out your score card for hypocrisy cause this is worth several points. Or maybe its just political "pragmatism" in action.
Oh, and Obama is apparently fond of the banking ability of Jamie Dimon. Those seem prophetic words that he'll be eating later on.
"JPMorgan is one of the best managed banks there is," Obama said during a taped interview that will air on ABC's The View. "Jamie Dimon, the head of it, is one of the smartest bankers we got, and they still lost $2 billion and counting."