Obama’s Money Class
By DAVID BROOKSBarack Obama sells the Democratic Party short. He talks about his fund-raising success as if his donors were part of a spontaneous movement of small-money enthusiasts who cohered around himself. In fact, Democrats have spent years building their donor network. Obama’s fund-raising base is bigger than John Kerry’s, Howard Dean’s and Al Gore’s, but it’s not different.
I guess you could say that. After all, there's only one national populations from which to solicit contributions.
But you could also say bigger is different.
As in other recent campaigns, lawyers account for the biggest chunk of Democratic donations. They have donated about $18 million to Obama, compared with about $5 million to John McCain, according to data released on June 2 and available at OpenSecrets.org.
People who work at securities and investment companies have given Obama about $8 million, compared with $4.5 for McCain. People who work in communications and electronics have given Obama about $10 million, compared with $2 million for McCain. Professors and other people who work in education have given Obama roughly $7 million, compared with $700,000 for McCain.
Real estate professionals have given Obama $5 million, compared with $4 million for McCain. Medical professionals have given Obama $7 million, compared with $3 million for McCain. Commercial bankers have given Obama $1.6 million, compared with $1.2 million for McCain. Hedge fund and private equity managers have given Obama about $1.6 million, compared with $850,000 for McCain.
Only white collar professionals count, huh? Even though these figures total only some $58 million for Obama? Where did he get all the rest of that cash?
Could it be he got it from different people than the white collar professionals Mr. Brooks feels fully defines the electorate?
Could it? Huh?
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hand wringing
These numbers highlight the serious angst among the top wage earners. As a member myself, I can tell you that declining home values, rising education costs, and the reduced ability of discretionary income to purchase luxury vacations and cultural diversions has got us shook. And we're the ones who did everything 'right'-scholastic achievement, marriage, delayed parenthood to establish professional security, and only one or two kids. Obama is our candidate. The folks featured last night on the focus group are outside this realm. They have the choice of aligning themselves with the GOP and continuing to rely on the declining psychological value of whiteness to substitute for the erosion of real earnings or to cast their lot with the petit bourgeoisie and the Dems in the hope that some good will come their way and the social contract of upward mobility will be maintained. The working class may be inured to economic insecurity and make electoral decisions on a combination of emotional variables but for the true middle class that is so comfortable in its surroundings that it cannot accurately distinguish between luxury and necessity the choice is fairly obvious.
Remember, the folks in the
Remember, the folks in the focus group last night were selected for being neither Obama not McCain supporters. I'd like to see a similar focus group among those two demographics as well.