Chicago Billionaire Leads Hedge Fund Shift Away from Obama

[sabra]

Source: ABC News

Kenneth Griffin, Former Obama 'Bundler,' Among Many Financiers Who Bankrolled GOP Mid-Term Success

In 2008, Chicago billionaire Kenneth C. Griffin described the "hometown pride" that led him to invite the fledgling presidential candidate Barack Obama to speak to employees at his hedge fund, and beyond that, to raise more than $200,000 to help see Obama elected. But recently published campaign finance records suggest that his hometown pride has faded. After Obama pushed through major financial reform, some leaders of the investment community like Ken Griffin have voiced their displeasure by serving as big-money backers of Republicans in 2010. A fresh batch of campaign finance and tax records show Griffin and his wife -- herself a hedge-fund manager -- combined to give $500,000 to American Crossroads, the so-called Super PAC organized by Karl Rove to defeat Democratic candidates in the mid-term elections. Griffin also donated directly to GOP senate, House and gubernatorial candidates, and to such political committees as the "Every Republican is Crucial PAC." Though he was notable as a "bundler" who raised big sums for Obama, Griffin has donated millions to politicians from both parties over the years, including writing a check to Obama's 2008 rival, Sen. John McCain. A spokeswoman with Citadel Investment Group, the Chicago-based firm whose performance has helped place the 41-year-old Griffin at number 149 on the Forbes list of the wealthiest Americans (with an estimated $2.3 billion fortune), said she had no comment on Griffin's latest preferences. But in helping assist a GOP resurgence that put Republicans back in charge of the House, Griffin is hardly alone.

Records show American Crossroads brought in numerous large contributions from heavy hitters in the financial industry. Jonathan Collegio, the communications director at American Crossroads, said many of the group's donors have been looking to blunt Obama's Wall Street initiatives. They are "folks who are deeply concerned about the direction of the country, and who saw the 2010 elections as an opportunity to put the brakes on the Obama agenda in Congress," Collegio told ABC News. "They believe in our goals of promoting free markets, free enterprise, and limited government."

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/chicago-billionaire-ken-griffin-leads-hedge-fund-obama/story?id=12322879

[Roland99]

1. It's all about the Benjamins.

[aquart]

2. No man should be so rich he has nothing left to buy but his government.

The free market regulates by death.

[Arctic Dave]

5. +100

[dmosh42]

3. The 'true' parasites! n/t

[Robbien]

4. Obama gave these rich guys everything they wanted

and then set up American Crossroads to create a smoke screen giving Obama cover to give the rich even more.

[tcaudilllg]

6. Absolute dirt.

[Moostache]

7. Seriously, why are these guys actually MAD at him?

Its not like Obama, I don't know, held the line on tax reform or REALLY reformed the banking industry. These ass-clowns are acting like Obama came in and pulled an FDR-like transformation of the economy instead of becoming their noodle-boy, yes-man enabler-in-chief.

If results like Obama make them react like this, it can only be for one reason and one reason alone - to intimidate and warn anyone actually SERIOUS about changing their rackets that they will not have any of it and that they will out-spend and out-finance anyone who gets in their way.

Welcome to the Plutocratic States of AmeriKKKa.

[Dawson Leery]

8. Obama just gave you another 2 years of tax cuts

and low taxes on capital gains. These bastards will never be content unless they have it all.