The Fast Fix: Has Wall Street abandoned Obama?

The Fast Fix: Has Wall Street abandoned Obama?

By Chris Cillizza | The Fast Fix – 6 hrs ago

In the battle for Wall Street campaign cash, Mitt Romney is beating Barack Obama.

Employees at Goldman Sachs, one of Wall Street's most high profile companies, donated nearly $250,000 to the former Massachusetts governor over the past three months. President Obama raised $127,000 from Goldman for himself and the Democratic National Committee over that same period. In 2008 Obama raised more than a million dollars from Goldman, the single biggest corporate donor to his campaign.

The reason for Romney's edge is at least in part due to the relationship he built as a co-founder of Bain Capital, a private equity firm. Romney allies insist his haul is also the result of a discontent within the financial sector toward the policies President Obama has pursued in office -- most notably the stiffer rules for the industry passed last year.

Still, Obama isn't doing too bad among Wall Street types. One in three of his top bundlers -- the men and women collecting hundreds of $2,500 checks for his campaign -- make their living in the financial sector. That's actually an improvement from 2008 when 20 percent of Obama's bundlers worked in the banking and investment sectors.

Romney's success on Wall Street is eye-opening but is probably best understood as the result of his long ties to the financial industry rather than some full-scale revolt from Obama.

No matter the reason, neither Romney nor Obama will spend much time touting their financial support from Wall Street, knowing that the financial industry is about a popular as used car salesmen and journalists these days.

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