President Occupy Wall Street, that's who -- and it's not even close:
Despite frosty relations with the titans of Wall Street, President Obama has still managed to raise far more money this year from the financial and banking sector than Mitt Romney or any other Republican presidential candidate, according to new fundraising data. Obama’s key advantage over the GOP field is the ability to collect bigger checks because he raises money for both his own campaign committee and for the Democratic National Committee, which will aid in his reelection effort.
As a result, Obama has brought in more money from employees of banks, hedge funds and other financial service companies than all of the GOP candidates combined, according to a Washington Post analysis of contribution data. The numbers show that Obama retains a persistent reservoir of support among Democratic financiers who have backed him since he was an underdog presidential candidate four years ago.
Remember how the Obama campaign is champing at the bit to paint Mitt Romney as an evil, greedy, selfish "one-percenter" because of the fortune he made running Bain Capital? Surprise:
Obama’s fundraising advantage is clear in the case of Bain Capital, the Boston-based private-equity firm that was co-founded by Romney, and where the Republican made his fortune. Not surprisingly, Romney has strong support at the firm, raking in $34,000 from 18 Bain employees, according to the analysis of data from the Center for Responsive Politics. But Obama has outdone Romney on his own turf, collecting $76,600 from Bain Capital employees through September — and he needed only three donors to do it.
Allahpundit delivers the twisted punchline:
Once the GOP nominee is unleashed and Wall Street money starts stampeding into the RNC, Democrats will segue effortlessly from months of quietly raking in as much finance cash as they can muster to months of demagoging the GOP as “the party of Wall Street” for having outraised them. Neat trick, that.
Yup. And guess who will happily promulgate that meme? Well, you know who. So that's your mid-morning shot: President Obama is still swimming in money from the very "fat cats" and "banksters" that his base wants arrested. The chaser? This story is too perfect:
President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign is asking artists to design promotional posters that convey a message: “support American jobs.” The brutal irony for artists, however, is that they will receive no payment for their work. The campaign, which has $61 million on hand, will reward only the three artists whose work is selected for use. The compensation? A copy of their artwork, signed by the president.
The Graphic Artists Guild isn’t pleased with the ask. On Saturday, the guild issued an open letter to the campaign voicing outrage over what it called a “shameful” competition. “American artists should be outraged that our President does not recognize that we are entitled to be paid for our work, as are all Americans,” the guild wrote.