 Posted: 05/12/08
The Art of Buying Politicians
The Facts about Institutional Campaign Funding
by JB Williams
The 2008 Presidential election promises to make history no matter who wins. It will cost more than $1 Billion dollars to fill a $400,000 a year job and not one of the three remaining candidates is qualified for that job. Now that’s a history making event worthy of comment! Every dollar is spent in an effort to buy a politician and every politician is for sale. There are only four types of political contributions.
Every penny spent on national campaigns represents an investment in one or more of these four categories. At the base, there are two opposing agendas. On one side are those seeking the rights to the earnings of others for personal gifts from and treasury and/or commercial advantage by way of government secured and protected monopolies for profit. On the other side are those seeking the old American right to Life, Liberty and Happiness in a free-market of ideas, enterprise and individual earnings. These two concepts are always at war with each other and in modern politics, politicians pander to one side or the other, sometimes both, in pursuit of personal political power and wealth. Despite campaign rhetoric, every candidate is for sale. The question is, - who is buying them and for which agenda? This is a study of the top 20 institutional political investors for each of the three remaining presidential candidates in the 2008 race - and you might be surprised to learn who is buying whom and why. Believe it - EVERY last penny is intended to “lobby” the recipient for future favor! As you will see, the notion that “fat cat” corporate investors are not influencing every campaign is an outright lie. These are America’s smartest investors. This money is not being spent for nothing. Meet the Pros The most professional political investors are those smart enough to buy favor from all candidates so that no matter who wins the election, their favors are covered. In the top 20 institutional investors list, we find five such investors and to no surprise, all five are masters of investment strategy and they have only one political ideology, win no matter what. In order of contribution, they are…
These five institutional givers appear on the top 20 donors list for each of the three presidential candidates. And again, contrary to campaign rhetoric, you can see that these “fat cat” institutional investors favor Democrats Obama and Clinton, not capitalist Republican pig John McCain. So, one can conclude that these five companies belong in categories 1 and 3 above, but are hedging their bets to cover their favors no matter who wins the election. Obama is the big winner in this category. Meet the Democratic Socialist Ideologues These investors are driven by political ideologies and they invest only in those politicians who see things as they see them. They too hedge their bets a bit by funding all candidates who represent their ideology, in hopes that at least one of them will win. They do not fund across ideological lines to any degree. The following seven institutional givers appear only on Democrats Obama and Clinton top 20 donor lists.
This group firmly belongs to groups 1, 3 and 4 above and in their quest for commercial favor from Democratic Socialists in Washington, they clearly favor Obama. Obama wins this category. Meet the Anti-Obama Investors These four institutional investors support both Clinton and McCain, indicating some level of discomfort with Barack Obama, though the cause of that discomfort is not investigated here.
In the anti-Obama camp, Clinton wins this category. So far, we can see that capitalist Republican pig John McCain is not doing so well with “fat cat” corporate investors attempting to buy a politician. When we take a look at the top 20 for each candidate, here’s who is winning the race for “fat cat” corporate “lobby” campaign funds.
Barack Obama is the clear winner among the top 20 political “fat cats.” But if we study the campaign totals from all institutional givers, Obama’s margin of victory is much larger than it appears here. Obama is by far the best funded political campaign of the season and as you can see, it isn’t all coming from poor little government dependent voters in $10.00 contributions as his campaign claims. To look even closer at the money in search of favor, we will look at the donors who have given exclusively to each campaign. Obama’s Strongest Supporters These corporate donors support Obama exclusively… groups 1, 3 and 4.
Clinton’s Strongest Supporters These corporate donors are exclusively funding Clinton… groups 1, 3 and 4.
McCain’s Strongest Supporters These corporate donors appear exclusively on McCain’s top 20 list… groups 2 and 3.
This group of political investors belongs to groups 2 and 3 above, seeking free open markets, capitalism and individual freedom to make individual choices. This is the only group McCain is winning. The Agendas are clear in the Donors Lists Obama’s support is coming largely from the “elitist” crowd of international lawyers, powerbrokers and ethnic organizations hoping to seat the second black president. Clinton’s support is coming from the “elitist” crowd of international lawyers, powerbrokers, and pro-abortion women’s groups hoping to seat the former First Lady behind the Oval Office desk and turn Bill loose in his playpen again. McCain’s support is coming mostly from U.S. corporations seeking to protect free-market conditions. Though I can’t let the Spanish Language Media Group or the International asset manage company go without note, due to McCain’s ongoing support for open immigration laws and some form of amnesty for illegal migrants already living in America. Having said that, the stark differences in the donors list of top 20 for each candidate make the agenda’s behind each candidate glaringly obvious. Two candidates are raising money from elitist sources interested in global socialist international initiatives and one is funded largely by U.S. organizations interested in U.S. interests. Again, a look at all of the institutional investors for these three candidates galvanizes this picture even further. Much more detail is available at www.OpenSecrets.org An even Finer Point on Topic The ill-advised passage of McCain-Feingold resulted in the advent of the 527 organization, where millions more are poured into the election process in a completely unregulated and often untraceable form. Democrats invented and lead the 527 fund-raising race by wide margin as well, money above and beyond all the direct campaign money reported here. The agendas of the three candidates come into crystal clear focus when you research the agenda’s of the 527 organization behind each candidate. The Inescapable Conclusion All politicians are for sale. Every penny invested in any campaign has a purpose to it and an expected return attached to it. Rich “fat cats” are NOT leaning towards Republican McCain, but rather towards Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Rupert Murdoch and News Corp are not part of some “right-wing” propaganda machine since they are supporting Hillary Clinton for President. And when it comes to “fat cat” elitist powerbrokers buying politicians, Barack Obama is hands down the clear favorite! Keep these facts in mind as you listen to each candidate blame the other for selling out to corporate contributions, international interests and “fat cat” elitists…. The facts really do matter! If we continue to ignore them, we get what we deserve because as Forest Gump’s momma said, “stupid is as stupid does!” |