Presidential Candidates Judged By The Company They Keep? Or The Money They Take?

You gotta love Mom!  She always had an apron full of sayings.  (At least mine did.)

• “If everyone else jumped off a cliff, would you do it too?”
• “It’s all fun and games until someone pokes an eye out.”
• “Elbows off the table.”
• “Don’t talk with your mouth full.”

And, of course, one of the wisest sayings of all:  “You are judged by the company you keep.”

Makes me wonder if our Presidential candidates valued their mom’s advice at all.  Let’s look at the top financial contributors for our current candidates.  But first, let’s acknowledge how top financial contributors seem to get a pass on just about everything from their bought politicians.  (By a pass, I mean an almost magical immunity from scrutiny or prosecution.)  In addition to the magical immunity, these contributors seem to be able to sprinkle their magical dust on the recipient and get whatever legislation suits them best. What Fortune 500 company spends money without the expectation of a healthy return?  It is their official fiduciary duty to their stockholders.

My most recent example:  President Barack Obama.

University of California $1,392,675
Goldman Sachs  $$1,035,095
Harvard University $893,110
Microsoft $809,799
Google $796,564
JP Morgan Chase $700,808
Citigroup $681,318
-Source

Recognize any companies embroiled in global financial shenanigans?  Anyone brought to task?  Of course not. They all are protected.  (By the way, with rising tuition costs, what in the world are the UC and Harvard doing?  Oh, yes.  I’m sure you get it too.)

Now let’s look at Mitt Romney’s top contributors.  I’m looking for a pattern:

Goldman Sachs $367,200
Credit Suisse Group $203,750
Morgan Stanley $199,800
HIG Capital $186,500
Barclays $157,750
Kirkland & Ellis $132,100
Bank of America $126,500
PriceWaterhouseCoopers $118,250
EMC Corp $117,300
JPMorgan Chase & Co $112,250
The Villages $97,500
Vivint Inc $80,750
Marriott International $79,837
Sullivan & Cromwell $79,250
Bain Capital $74,500
UBS AG $73,750
Wells Fargo $61,500
Blackstone Group $59,800
Citigroup Inc $57,050
Bain & Co $52,500
-Source

Notice the pattern?

Now let’s look at Ron Paul’s top financial contributors:

US Army $24,503
US Air Force $23,335
US Navy $17,432
Mason Capital Management $14,000
Microsoft Corp $13,398
Boeing Co $10,620
Google Inc $10,390
Overland Sheepskin $10,350
IBM Corp $8,294
US Government $7,756
DUNN Capital Management $7,500
Corriente Advisors $7,500
Greenstreet Co $7,500
Northrop Grumman $7,272
Lockheed Martin $7,208
Intel Corp $6,855
US Dept of Defense $6,524
United Technologies $6,316
Federal Express Corp $6,255
Entergy Corp $5,950
-Source

I find this very interesting.  So, while the MSM and other Presidential Candidates belittle Ron Paul on his “dangerous” “disastrous” “crazy foreign policies”, you’ll see that our Armed Forces are the #1 contributing factor in his campaign.  Goldman Sachs, JP Morgran, and Citigroup are nowhere to be seen.  What do our operational men and women in the armed forces know that we don’t?

Last time I checked, it has been our Military that has kept the United States free and independent.  I can’t say the same for the  derivative spewing financial behemoths.