Taking It From The Street

One of the most common populist refrains spouted by Democratic candidates in recent years is, "We need a president who looks out for Main Street instead of Wall Street." Said refrain is usually met by broad applause on the campaign trail.

I wonder how the crowds who eat up this meaningless rhetoric would react if they knew which candidates were benefitting the most from political donations from the Wall Street crowd. Financial Industry Pours on Campaign Donations (WSJ-sub req):

Data gathered by the Center For Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan Washington group whose opensecrets.org Web site tracks political giving, reckons that the banking-and-investment industry is giving nearly twice as much to Democrats as to Republicans in the 2008 cycle.

Based on records from 2007 through January, the center calculates that the Democratic Party has raked in about $15.1 million from employees and political action committees of banks and investment companies, compared to $7.7 million for Republicans. The numbers for March, a traditionally heavy month for campaign fund-raisers, have yet to be reported. In the 2004 cycle, the center said, the campaign cash was more equally distributed, with Republicans hauling in $22 million compared with $19.5 million for Democrats.

The race for president follows this pattern, with Democratic candidates Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York and Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois greatly outraising Arizona Sen. John McCain, the pending Republican nominee. Sen. McCain raised about $3 million from employees of securities and investment firms through February compared with $6.6 million for Sen. Clinton and $6.7 million for Sen. Obama. But Sen. McCain may be able to close the gap: According to names released by the campaigns and gathered by Whitehouseforsale.org, a research Web site maintained by the nonprofit, nonpartisan group Public Citizen, Sen. McCain counts an army of Wall Street executives among his most prolific fund-raisers, suggesting he will be able to tap them in the future.

If McCain does receive a windfall of contributions from Wall Street, expect to see it prominently noted in the media. The haul taken in so far by Hillary and Obama--the candidates for the common man? Well, that doesn't really fit the narrative you see.

I'm not against companies and individuals giving to the candidates of their choice and I don't have a problem with candidates accepting said donations. But if would be nice if the Dems (and even McCain on occasion) could give their cynical Wall Street bashing a rest. No, I'm not holding my breath.