Tuesday, July 17, 2007

GOP Not Dead in 2008

Today’s Wall Street Journal shows private equity firms are giving more cash to Republican presidential candidates than to Democrats. While the GOP’s take is only 53.1 percent of the $493,000 donated to the top candidates in both parties, it’s a good start.

It’s a wonder Democrats get any donations at all, after painting tax bull’s-eyes on the backs of buyout firms and hedge funds—which include private partnerships for venture capital, real estate oil/gas, etc.

But there you have it. At least some investment firms out there are coming to their senses.

Some interesting notes:

- Fortress Investment Group (which hired multimillionaire trial lawyer John Edwards to teach him about poverty) gave $150,000 to the North Carolina attorney’s campaign.

- Citadel Investment Group employees gave $150,000 to Senator Obama.

- Steven Cohen’s SAC Advisors in Greenwich, CT gave a cool $268,000 to Democrat Chris Dodd, chairman of the Senate banking Committee. Talk about throwing bad money after bad.

- On the bright side, savvy supply-sider Paul Singer’s Elliot Management contributed $180,000 to Republican Rudy Giuliani’s campaign—a clear sign that some financial wizards are coming to their senses.

The mainstream media would like people to believe that the Democrats have wrapped up the 2008 election. They’re doing everything they can to give the election to the Dems.

Well, I completely disagree.

I continue to believe that the bedrock positions of the Democratic Party are anathema to most Americans. Democrats are stuck in a political time warp—still stubbornly clinging to a McGovernite, soft-on-terror approach on defense and Walter Mondale on high taxes and spending.

We know what happened to Mondale and McGovern.

It will be these failed, fossilized positions that will doom this latest crop of high tax, soft-on-terror Democrats to defeat next year.

I’m glad to see Bill Kristol agrees with me.