284 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized BiographyJohn Kerry’s chief of fund-raising in 2004; Betty Lu [Klutznick] Saltzman, one of Obama’s
biggest boosters; personal-injury attorney Bob Clifford; Capri Capital CEO Quintin Primo;
activists Marilyn Katz and Michael Bauer, Ariel Capital’s John Rogers and Mellody Hobson.
Hollywood moguls David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg; a string of Harvard Law School
friends; Broadway producer Margo Lion, and Bill Kennard, managing director of the Carlyle
Group, are among the other bundlers.” The hypocrisy is many-sided. Last week Sweet reported
that Obama had received large donations from at least eight executives at Island Def Jam, a hip-
hop recording firm that markets rap artists Obama has accused of “degrading their sisters” with
sexist slurs. (Paul Street, “Big (Deceptive) Talk About ‘Small Donations,’” Zmag)^133
In this interpretation, the swarms of small contributors function as a kind of screening operation
for the main force units of the Obama money cartel, who are the rapacious corporate bundlers.
When Obama finally turned away from public funding, many commentators joined Obama in his
cynicism, speculating that this whole issue had simply been a smokescreen for Democratic attacks
on their better funded Republican rivals in the first place. Prominent among the cynics was, as
usual, the oligarchical apologist David Brooks:
The media and the activists won’t care (they were only interested in campaign-finance reform
only when the Republicans had more money). Meanwhile, Obama’s money is forever. He’s got
an army of small donors and a phalanx of big money bundlers, including, according to The
Washington Post, Kenneth Griffin of the Citadel Investment Group; Kirk Wager, a Florida trial
lawyer; James Crown, a director of General Dynamics; and Neil Bluhm, a hotel, office and
casino developer. (David Brooks, New York Times, June 20, 2008)^134RUPERT MURDOCH SUPPORTS OBAMA, LATE MAY 2008
Obama is intrinsically a creature of what may be called in general terms the center-left side of
the US-UK financier establishment. This wing of the banking community is grouped around names
like David Rockefeller, George Soros, Robert Rubin, Felix Rohatyn, and Goldman Sachs. Its
political spokesmen include James Baker III, former Congressman Lee Hamilton, Pelosi, the
Kennedy family, and others. During 2007, it had been possible to distinguish another faction which
could be associated with the names of George Shultz, Rupert Murdoch, Tony Blair, and various
right-wing figures in Wall Street. During the primary season, it was significant that many of the
revelations which so damaged Obama came from O’Reilly, Hannity, and other commentators
employed by Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News Channel. It was therefore significant when arch-
reactionary Rupert Murdoch announced that he too was smitten by the Obama craze.
“We’re on the verge of a complete phenomenon,” Murdoch said. “Politicians are at an all-time
low and are despised by 80% of the public, and then you’ve got a candidate trying to put
himself out above it all. He’s become a rock star. It’s fantastic. “There are a lot of problems.
The education system in this country is a total disgrace.” Murdoch heaped praise on Obama,
saying he was a “highly intelligent man with a great record at Harvard”, but stopped short of a
full personal endorsement because he wanted “to meet him personally.” The Obama
phenomenon and undoubtedly the recession and everyone getting hurt... the average American
family today is really financially hurting and that all bodes well for him,” he said. “He may not
carry Florida because the Jewish people are suspicious of him, and so are Hispanics. But he’ll
probably add Ohio and others. He will probably win.” Despite saying he was a friend of John
McCain, Murdoch said the Republican presidential nominee had “a lot of problems.” “McCain
has been in congress a long time and you’ve got to make too many compromises,” he said.