Obama's first 100 days II

wage zombie wrote:

Links please.  Which backers supported Obama over McCain?

David Frum (Bush speechwriter), Peggy Noonan (Reagan Speechwriter), Kathleen Parker (Conservative columnist) , David Brooks, Andrew Sullivan... the list goes on, but all of the above are prominent, widely published conservatives who supported the Iraq war, Bush and Obama in 08. they are quite happy with Obama's war policies so far. 

ETA: can't believe I forgot Colin Powell.

Sullivan also endorsed John Kerry.

The first link given by Jingles above, "Republicans defect to the Obama camp" lists a handful of names of Republicans who have grown disillusioned with Bush (one of whom was supporting McCain) and states that "Obama and Clinton have vacuumed up more than $750,000 (£375,000) in individual contributions from former Bush donors."  Ooooh, $750,000 between Obama and Clinton.  Come on, those were Bush's biggest backers?  Now that's a link to an article from May 2007, but that's the link we were given.

The link given to the wiki page makes no mention at all of funding.  Sure lots of Republicans voted for Obama, that's how he won.  And some prominent Republicans noticed that the Bush administration was batshit crazy and McCain would've been the same.  But no mention of funding at all.

I see nothing in these links to justify the claim that "Bush's biggest backers all supported Obama over Mcain."

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/03/18/aigs-political-donations/ 

The top ten recipients of AIG donations for the 2008 election cycle:
Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Connecticut: $103,100
President Barack Obama: $101,332
Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona: $59,499
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: $35,965
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Montana: $24,750
Former presidential candidate Mitt Romney: $20,850
Vice President Joe Biden: $19,975
Rep. John Larson, D-Connecticut: $19,750
Sen. John Sununu, R-New Hampshire: $18,500
FormerpPresidential candidate Rudy Giuliani: $13,200

So did AIG sponsor a particular candidate or a particular party or were they just putting money into everyone?  Have there been any presidents lately who have NOT gotten large contributions from AIG?

The Obama campaign raised $650 million.  So the AIG donations represent 0.015% of Obama's total, that's 1.5% of 1%.  I'm all for criticizing Obama's actions as president--if people want to make a stink about his donations i would hope they could find something more damning than this.

Wellll...i don't think i'd go that far.  I think to some extent any USian president will be beholden to corporate America.  I just don't think he's beholden to "Bush's biggest backers" and i think a $100,000 AIG donation isn't much of a scandal.

The Obama administration on Thursday detailed its wide-ranging plan to overhaul financial regulation by subjecting hedge funds and traders of exotic financial instruments, now among the biggest and most freewheeling players on Wall Street, to potentially strict new government supervision.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/27/business/economy/27regulate.html?hp

[url=http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2009/03/war-on-terror-20/][color=mediumblu... on Terror 2.0[/u][/color][/url]

Quote:

Defending government eavesdropping without a warrant. Arguing that prisoners of the U.S. held overseas don't have the right to challenge their detention in U.S. courts. Claiming that victims of CIA kidnapping shouldn't have their cases heard because of "national security" interests.

[b]These were supposed to be relics of the Bush administration[/b] and its attacks on basic constitutional and human rights. Instead, they are among the many troubling actions taken by the new administration of President Barack Obama.

Rather than repudiating Bush's shredding of the Constitution, the new White House is embracing some of the worst abuses carried out by the Bush administration in the name of national security and the "war on terror...."

[b]Among other things, since taking office, the Obama administration has: pre-empted a Supreme Court ruling on whether a legal resident on U.S. soil can be imprisoned indefinitely without trial as an "enemy combatant"; attempted to block a judicial ruling on Bush's warrantless wiretapping program; asserted in court that prisoners currently held overseas by U.S. forces in Bagram, Afghanistan, have no constitutional right to challenge their detentions in U.S. courts; and argued to dismiss cases brought in federal court by alleged victims of CIA kidnappings and torture on the grounds of "national security."[/b]

Yeah, if there were transparency in gov't then AIG would get a patch on Obama's suit for funding 1.5% of 1% of Obama's campaign.  That's a stretch.

I think they only let puppets be president.  The question is then how much can subversive puppets accomplish.