All I've been hearing about in the political press since the financial crisis began is the ties that John McCain allegedly had with Fannie and Freddie and other financial companies, implying that these associations somehow taint him in some special way. Its not enough that Obama is consistently talking about the improper nature of McCain's association with these companies, but the press is lock step behind him, consistently repeating Obama talking points and looking for whatever evidence they can find against McCain. The truth is as follows, from Open Secrets.org. You decide who got more money from who when it comes down to the financial crisis, and who is the media IGNORING when it comes to such "illicit" or "scandalous" funds.
http://www.opensecrets.org/
Here are the following contributions received by Obama and McCain from large businesses:
Overall Top 20 - John McCain
Merrill Lynch $298,413
Citigroup Inc $269,251
Morgan Stanley $233,272
Goldman Sachs $208,395
JPMorgan Chase & Co $179,975
AT&T Inc $174,487
Blank Rome LLP $150,426
Credit Suisse Group $150,025
Greenberg Traurig LLP $146,787
UBS AG $140,165
PricewaterhouseCoopers $140,120
US Government $137,617
Bank of America $129,475
Wachovia Corp $122,846
Lehman Brothers $117,500
FedEx Corp $113,453
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher $104,250
US Army $103,613
Bear Stearns $99,300
Pinnacle West Capital $97,700
Compare those numbers to Obama's numbers
Overall Top 20 - Barack Obama
Goldman Sachs $691,930
University of California $611,207
Citigroup Inc $448,599
JPMorgan Chase & Co $442,919
Harvard University $435,769
Google Inc $420,174
UBS AG $404,750
National Amusements Inc $389,140
Microsoft Corp $377,235
Lehman Brothers $370,524
Sidley Austin LLP $350,302
Moveon.org $347,463
Skadden, Arps et al $340,264
Time Warner $338,527
Wilmerhale Llp $335,398
Morgan Stanley $318,070
Latham & Watkins $297,400
Jones Day $289,476
University of Chicago $278,885
Stanford University $276,038
Mortage Companies - Top 5 Candidates
Obama, Barack (D) Senate $305,122
Clinton, Hillary (D-NY) Senate $274,715
Romney, Mitt (R) $166,100
McCain, John (R) Senate $150,200
Dodd, Christopher J (D-CT) Senate $139,450
Securities and Investment - Top 5 Candidates
Obama, Barack (D) Senate $10,059,210
Clinton, Hillary (D-NY) Senate $7,355,720
McCain, John (R) Senate $7,029,893
Giuliani, Rudolph W (R) $5,038,745
Romney, Mitt (R) $4,884,137
Finance/Credit
Clinton, Hillary (D-NY) Senate $211,296
Dodd, Christopher J (D-CT) Senate $190,250
Obama, Barack (D) Senate $186,753
McCain, John (R) Senate $110,949
Johnson, Tim (D-SD) Senate $96,650
I'm not saying that one candidate is more pure than another when it comes to money taken from big business. I'm saying that there is no white knight, and if the media is going to question political contributions on one side, they must do so for BOTH sides or they have invalidated themselves as a news source.
I rarely agree with Sean Hannity, but when he declared that 2008 is the year that journalism died, I don't think he was far off.
Politics - Follow the Money
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