THE HUTCHINSON POLITICAL REPORT: Obama's White House is for Sale Just like All the Others.

     He warned corporate lobbyists that their days of setting the agenda in Washington were over. The difference between what Bush, Clinton, Bush Sr., Reagan and every occupant of the White House did and what the Obama White House does in showering perks on fat cat donors is that the other presidents knew enough to keep quiet about it. Obama didn't. He denounced the practice. It practically became his campaign mantra.

     It's not political rocket science stuff to know that the White House has always been for sale to the highest bidders. Obama, or any other Oval Office occupant, would not have a prayer of getting to the White House without the tens of millions that lobbyists, PACs, corporations, Wall Street, and labor unions stuff into their campaign coffers.

     Even as Obama revved up the crowd in New York and Iowa with his promise to chase the money changers out of the White House, he cut deals in the Senate to back more industry friendly tariff suspension bills than all other the presidential candidates in 2008, accept one.

     His oft made claim that his campaign was bankrolled by the nickels and dimes of the little people was part truth, and in bigger part hyperbole. The list of Obama's banking and corporate donors read like a who's who of corporate and Wall Street America; the same as other winning presidents.

     A study by the nonpartisan Campaign Finance Institute smashed the myth that small donors oiled Obama's campaign. The Institute found that Obama had only marginally more small donors than Bush had in 2004 (Obama-26 percent, Bush-25 percent).

     Obama netted nearly eighty percent more money from large donors (those giving $1,000 or more total) than from small donors. He got a whopping $ 200 million plus from mega donors and bundlers. That's the dubious practice of combining small donations from special interests and the wealthy to skirt campaign financing limits.

     Obama gets a faint flutter of criticism for ladling out special favors to the rich not only because he promised that the big money crowd would be banned in Boston from the White House, but because legions of voters actually voted for him because they believed he'd ban the wealth crowd. He talked so much about transparency, accountability, and ... (READ MORE)