Does Obama Owe His 2008 Election Victory to Financial Backers?

As observed in various forums, many people believe that without substantial donations from the financial institutions, 2008 would have witnessed a McCain ascendancy to President. Even Noam Chomsky has claimed that FI donations alone account for Obama’s superior campaign funds, and hence they are responsible for his victory1. At the onset of his reelection campaign, it is important to assess his policies in context of donations of 2008 and before 2012. It is my intention to provide an (admittedly brief) overview of FI donations (both of lobbyists and individuals) to Obama and the extent to which they affected the 2008 election.

Although the tag hasn’t caught on as a slogan, Obama has always been ‘Wall Street’s Guy’2. As a first-time senator, Obama was ostensibly less opposed to the influences of lobbyists and Wall Street than when he stated ‘I don’t take a dime of their money’3. Well before announcing (and perhaps planning) his presidential campaign, Obama had accepted over $100K from Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac4. These donations continued through the campaign: OpenSecrets estimates that Obama’s 2008 campaign received just under $26M from the Banking, ‘Securities and Investment’ and ‘Miscellaneous Finance) industry lobbyists, nearly double that of McCain’s campaign5. These statistics are (obviously) limited to those disclosed, and OpenSecrets also lists $26M of undisclosed company donations for Obama, compared to McCain’s $17M. Adding these figures, in a non-existent extreme case, Obama’s total donations from the financial industry would be $52M, four times that of McCain. In any eventuality, the dichotomy between candidates (which is being replicated in the lead up to the 2011 campaign) supports the label of Obama as ‘Wall Street’s Guy’.

Any political label is subjectively interpreted according to the ideological eye of the beholder, and so Obama’s ‘true’ label must rely on the donations in context of the entire campaign. Obama raised (and spent) nearly...