Obama Pitches Woo to Wall Street

Posted on Jun 13, 2011

Wikimedia Commons / Martin St.-Amant

Land of the fat cats: Wall Street through a fisheye lens.

Though he once referred to them as “fat cats,” President Obama now has to sing a different tune to Wall Street’s bigwigs in order to persuade them to open their wallets as he revs up for campaign 2012. Awkward!

However, how far he actually strayed from their fold is debatable, despite his blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment of talking tough.  —KA

The New York Times:

The president’s top financial industry supporters say they are confident that the support Mr. Obama needs will ultimately be there, despite the financial industry’s unhappiness over his efforts to tighten regulation of their businesses. But it is clear that those supporters will have to work much harder to win over the financial services industry than they did in 2008, before Wall Street’s bust, the subsequent clashes over policy and the sometimes bitter personal differences that lingered afterward.

Executives at large investment banks, a group that gave generously to Mr. Obama in his last campaign, are remaining on the sidelines for now. Only a small handful of such donors have appeared in Mr. Obama’s joint campaign filings with the Democratic National Committee, though officials there said more would appear in the coming weeks.

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