Obama Accepts Millions From Subprime Tied Contributors - Part I
…Obama’s rhetoric on the mortgage crisis has been pointed and blunt, as stated on his own campaign website, “Obama will crack down on fraudulent brokers and lenders…Obama has been closely monitoring the subprime mortgage situation for years, and introduced comprehensive legislation over a year ago to fight mortgage fraud and protect consumers against abusive lending practices”.
Throughout the campaign season Obama has attacked Wall Street’s financial sector and ran a campaign based largely upon his “good judgement”. The problem with Obama’s rhetoric rests in the fact that tucked away in his database of 1.5 million donors are the approximately 130,000 power brokers that have funded nearly 60% of his campaign. Included in this list are the more than 350 campaign bundlers who have accounted for over $78 million in contributions.
Among those campaign bundlers is Paul Roth, a partner at Schulte, Roth & Zabel, a firm that represents financial institutions including investment banks, securities firms, and hedge funds. Roth not only contributed to Obama’s campaign but also helped to “bundle” more than $50,000 for the Senator. The Obama bundler rolls also include Tom Wheeler, the managing director of Core Capital Partners, a Washington based private equity fund, have helped raise more than $100,000 for the Obama Campaign.
The real problem for Obama extends well beyond his campaign bundlers that include several prominent lobby–representing attorney’s and executives such as Frank Clark, the CEO of Commonwealth Edison. Executives across the financial and investment industry have accounted for millions in campaign contributions.
In San Antonia this past February Obama stated in a campaign speech, “To give you a sense of what that kind of lobbying gets you… the CEO of the largest subprime lender was promised a hundred-million-dollar severance package at a time when more than 2 million Americans were facing foreclosure, including nearly 14,000 righ