Conventional wisdom has it that Wall Street is the ultimate bastion of free-market capitalism and that the big bankers are, of course, diehard Republicans, red to the core. But the truth is far from that: Many of the leaders of the world's financial firms are as liberal as they come. As attorney and political strategist Jack Burkman explains, "People tend to associate Republicans with Wall Street, but the truth is, it's the Democrats that are in bed with the Street. And that's certainly true with Obama. He's been in bed [with them] from the beginning. And that was crucial to his victory. Without Wall Street's initial support he doesn't have credibility ... No doubt about it. Without Wall Street, Obama would not be in power today."
Maybe it's just to score points on the Manhattan cocktail circuit, but these six bankers break the mold and bleed Obama blue; what's more they all gave eye-popping amounts of green in the last election cycle to help elect a president they truly bought and paid for. Combined, these six alone gave $282,100 in the last cycle to the Democrats; their combined donations to Republicans: $7,650. That would be almost 37 times as much money going to the left as to the right. For more, see my just-released book, "Bought and Paid For: The Unholy Alliance Between Barack Obama and Wall Street."
