What or Who is Obama’s Base?
By LisaB on July 2, 2008 at 4:15 PM in Barack Obama, Current Affairs
I think the potential “new” Democratic base is becoming clear at last. Or at least the base for the GE. Whether Obama would run from this base like he has from the one he used to win the Democratic nomination (presumptive), remains to be seen. But let’s look at what we got, shall we?
1) A fascinating piece by David Brooks at the NYT includes information about some of Obama’s heaviest donors, not by individual, but by class and work sector. He sees some interesting trends.
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Brooks discusses the breakdown of Obama’s supporters, contrasting that with the campaign’s constant assertions of the “low donation supporter” as if they are merely processing $5, $10 and $25 checks from the “little guys.” Based on information at opensecrets.org, Brooks finds the following:
As in other recent campaigns, lawyers account for the biggest chunk of Democratic donations. They have donated about $18 million to Obama, compared with about $5 million to John McCain, according to data released on June 2 and available at OpenSecrets.org.
People who work at securities and investment companies have given Obama about $8 million, compared with $4.5 for McCain. People who work in communications and electronics have given Obama about $10 million, compared with $2 million for McCain. Professors and other people who work in education have given Obama roughly $7 million, compared with $700,000 for McCain.
Real estate professionals have given Obama $5 million, compared with $4 million for McCain. Medical professionals have given Obama $7 million, compared with $3 million for McCain. Commercial bankers have given Obama $1.6 million, compared with $1.2 million for McCain. Hedge fund and private equity managers have given Obama about $1.6 million, compared with $850,000 for McCain.
When you break it out by individual companies, you find that employees of Goldman Sachs gave more to Obama than workers of any other employer. The Goldman Sachs geniuses are followed by employees of the University of California, UBS, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, National Amusements, Lehman Brothers, Harvard and Google. At many of these workplaces, Obama has a three- or four-to-one fund-raising advantage over McCain.
Brooks notes that all the heavy donors are all highly educated. It is also apparent that these donors are “information economy” professionals for the most part. Brooks ends with this:
If the Democrats are elected, this highly educated class will have much more say over policy than during the campaign. Undecided voters sway campaigns, but in government, elites generally run things. Once the Republicans are vanquished, I wouldn’t hold your breath waiting for that capital gains tax hike or serious measures to expand unionization.
Interesting. Remember when George Bush told a bunch of millionaires that they were HIS BASE? Well, perhaps change some of the industries, from coal and oil to information management and finance and you’ve got the same thing. Also note what these sectors don’t typically represent: blue collar workers, low income workers and/or manufacturing industries like the auto industry.
2) The Independent has an interesting, and more objective piece about Obama than you’ll find at most MSM sites. Dominic Lawson writes about Obama’s many flips between the “good” Obama and the evil twin Baricky. It’s definitely worth a read.
Lawson starts out with a passage from The Audacity of Hope:
“I find comfort in the fact that the longer I’m in politics the less nourishing popularity becomes, that a striving for rank and fame seems to betray a poverty of ambition, and that I am answerable mainly to the steady gaze of my own conscience.”
Thus spake Barack Obama. These words appear at the conclusion of the chapter entitled “Politics” in Obama’s 2006 book The Audacity of Hope. They also sum up much of what we now know about Obama: a man of stunning articulacy, but also stunning self-regard.
Lawson goes on to detail the many position switches Obama has managed in the brief time since the primary season more or less ended.
Those who actually supported Obama during this [primary] process now divide neatly, if unevenly, into two groups. The first, smaller, group is full of buyer’s remorse. The blogosphere is hissing like a catherine wheel with their anger with Obama, obviously, but above all with themselves. The second, much bigger group, continues to buy Obama’s story. They argue that everything and anything is justified if it helps to get a Democrat back in the White House; some of them add that “of course” Obama doesn’t believe any of the things he is now saying to woo the “redneck states” and that once in the White House he will revert to his “true beliefs”.
To this group we must address a simple question. How do you know what Obama really believes in, other than his own destiny – and, of course, his conscience?
An excellent question. And I don’t think anyone has a clue. But here’s the thing.
*While claiming to raise most of his funds from “small donors,” Obama has actually raised most of his money from wealthy donors of the “information age” elites. Just whose interests will he look after here?
*He has ruthlessly switched positions on many hot-button items of importance to traditional Democrats who got him to where he is now (see NAFTA, FISA, public campaign financing, and others). Just which direction on any of these will he ultimately go?
* Then he drops the f-bomb on his supposed base: the proposal to keep the faith-based policy of GWB. Is this a ruse? Will he do this or is it just a way of getting evangelicals to vote for him?
* Obama has discarded many friends of long standing, some who probably helped him on his way up. Is Obama the kind of man who easily drops long-term relationships or is it the new friends who won’t last in his organization?
So, three questions:
1. WHO is Obama?
2. WHO is his real BASE?
and, perhaps most importantly,
3. HOW will we be able to tell?
, the basis for the Best Motion Picture Nominee (Golden Globes) starring Brad Pitt.
, the novel by John Le Carre, a new motion picture starring Gary Oldman and Colin Firth.
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.by David Fredosso who wrote 2008's 
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