Wall Street still giving to Obama

Getty Images/Mandel Ngan

(CBS News) The securities and investment industry isn't investing in the Obama campaign the way it was in 2008, but the industry is still giving generously to the Democratic president's re-election campaign.

President Obama and the Democratic National Committee have collectively raised more than $14 million from the industry through the end of April, the Wall Street Journal reports, using data from the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. That makes it the third most generous industry donating to the president's re-election effort, behind retirees and lawyers.

The data proves the industry is far from turning its back on Mr. Obama, but the president's populist rhetoric this election cycle may be having some impact. Mr. Obama's Republican rival Mitt Romney raised nearly $9.5 million from the industry as of the end of May, the Journal reports -- more than the campaign raised from any other industry, aside from retired donors. The sum is especially impressive, given that it doesn't include Wall Street donations to the Republican National Committee -- Romney only began its joint fundraising effort with the RNC in mid-April.

Mr. Obama has had a somewhat rocky relationship with Wall Street over the course of his first term, after locking horns with bankers over his Wall Street regulatory overhaul and slamming "fat cat bankers" on CBS' "60 Minutes".

Now that the 2012 campaign is underway, the president's re-election campaign has only stepped up the populist rhetoric, attacking Romney for his record as founder of the private equity firm Bain Capital. As Mr. Obama casts Romney as a corporate raider, it's made even some in his own party -- Democrats with their own ties to Wall Street -- openly uncomfortable.

Instead of letting up on the attacks, however, the Obama campaign is digging in with its latest line of attack, charging that Romney's business outsourced jobs. In a new Obama ad out Tuesday, a narrator says Romney's businesses were "pioneers in outsourcing U.S. jobs to low-wage companies." Alternatively, the ad says Mr. Obama believes in "in-sourcing." The ad is running in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

The line of attack relies on a Washington Post article that examined Bain's role in the outsourcing trend, but multiple fact-checking sites have taken issue with the attack, calling it misleading.

[fiddlestickawshucks]

You got that right.!!!!!

Let Obama explain in his next campaign speech GE (a company he supported and who supports him including a GE owned TV network) why and how GE left the US.

[TJphoto]

Wall Street has been giving money to both sides for decades. They hedge their bets. Of course I'm sure Washington is not for sale. Pass the prozac please.

[Nocults]

Why waste your money on a sure loser, like Bishop Romney????????

[TimeToEvolve]

Is there anyone out there who doubts that Wall Street runs the government? They have taken over all the media, the military and they bribe the elected officials to do our bidding.

The Corporations stacked the courts with right wingers to do their bidding and decide everything in their favor including our fake elections. They have stolen our elections, they have stolen our government and it is still not enough for the Wal Marts of the world. They want our freedoms and our wealth as well and they will stop at nothing to get it.