Stewart Heckled by Wall St. Crowd Over Obama

The other evening I went as a guest of friends to a dinner to raise money for a hospital in New York. This was the same hospital where my twins were prematurely born. On entering this world they weighed only 2 pounds and 3 ounces respectively, but went on to thrive. So I was glad to be at this event with friends whose company I always enjoy.

Until, that is, the comedian Jon Stewart, probably New York's most beloved television host, started to speak -- and to my astonishment -- was heckled. The unlikely-looking heckler was a dark-haired woman whose jewels were bigger than she was.

Her problem was Stewart's enthusiastic support for Barack Obama. "He's a communist," the woman yelled, while her table sat stony-faced. "His tax program will make us all poor."

Stewart, to his credit, carried on with his speech, though he dryly observed it was a tough crowd that night. The underlying reality is that though New York leans Democratic and will inevitably vote for Obama, the Wall Street community is very wary of his economic policies.

I have repeatedly heard from financiers that the only reason they are not voting for John McCain is his appalling judgment in picking Sarah Palin as his number two. "Raising taxes in this environment will create a depression" is the mantra one hears from the financial community, which hopes that once Obama is elected, as seems likely, he does not actually deliver on his promises.

They are very skeptical of what are perceived to be his so-called "Left-wing" economic advisers, including former Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, who, like the former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, has had his reputation tarnished by the credit crisis.

So, for Wall Street, this election is far from being the "exciting" moment the mainstream press would have us believe. "We're between a rock and a hard place," an ordinarily Democratic financier told me the other night.

Everyone agrees America needs a fresh face and new ideas. But most of all we need confidence in our leadership. And Wall Street, whatever you may think of it, needs to believe, too, if bankers are to lend and markets to get off the floor.

In other words, when he is elected, Obama needs to sweep even that irritating bejeweled lady off her feet.

This article was originally published by the London Evening

Comments

[pup sydney]

The only thing Obama will depress for GOPers of Wall street is the height of the rocks on their wives diamond rings or the number of jets engines on their private jet and I am not sure about thsi either (look at what they are doing with your bailout money: bonuses, trip to hunt pheasants in England etc)
I am still waiting on that trickle to drop down to me from the idiots that have run the USA economy into the ground.
How did the 600 dollar check from Bush work for us? Talk about socialism!!
The USA super rich was paid exorbitantly well in a country with the 2nd lowest tax rate in the world. They were paid to fire american workers to replace them with chinese workers. They operated without any obstacle, without any real union to protect the workers or the citizenry and they STILL screwed up utterly. Why isn't anybody stating how poorly our capitalists perform?
And they want more credit? More tax breaks for this incompetent class of capitalists? NO WAY_NO MORE.

[IR55]

Get it together America. Demand that the federal government seize the personal assets, including the jewels of the dark haired woman. Sell off those assets and pay down the bailout debt. Demand that the federal government try and execute the CEO's and their top echelon for treason. Nothing of consequence ever happens to these people. We've allowed them, with the help of our legislators to rob us blind. A couple of public executions will make anyone working on Wall Street think twice before engaging in questionable, illegal, or unethical business dealings.

[Oxonian2001]

Look at this little welfare queen, our budding American grown Marie Antoniette. Well, w need a Robespierre of our own time to nip her in the bud.

But unfortunately, this will never happen as long as we have greedy, self-entitled Wall streeters and corporate leeches, a largely upper/upper middle class Congress all too willing to support folks just like them while screaming "CLASS WARFARE" any time we question their rights to bilk the rest of America. Finally, let's not forget working class folk who fail to see that voting Repug will only exacerbate all of the problems we've been seeing. They prefer to rail against "f*ing furriners" and "Indians and Chinese stealing our American jobs" without realizing that the Repugs (and yes, a number of Dems) have stolen their jobs from right under them while building their 10th mansion, buying that $300,000 diamond necklace, and that anique Maserati.

[Yola]

WALL STREET? I give her two weeks to hack those large jewels!

[Westof405]

If that woman is making more than $250K a year, net income, I doubt an extra 3 percent tax will make her "poor." I would love to know her definition of "poor.' She probably means only being able to afford two houses instead of three, flying first class instead of by private jet and buying a Mercedes instead of a Bentley. I would bet she's one of the people benefiting from the bailout and getting our money as her year-end bonus. Talk about redistributing the wealth.

[SKayum]

I think we've seen enough of the people on Wall Street this past month to recognize that they're not really on our side. Ordinary Americans have been on a losing street for quite some time now. But it is only officially a crisis when the big dogs feel it? That bejeweled woman isn't concerned about the vast majority of Americans who will benefit from Obama's plans - she's concerned only for herself.

[condieshoes]

She's right, in the minds of the top 1% of the economic pile, ANY decrease means that they are poor. It is called GREED!

Wealth is relative. Relative to what and whom.

[rjmiller]

The truth of the matter is that Obama is going to raise that woman's taxes, and you know what, that's a good thing.

Unfortunately, the "tax-and-spend" agenda has been strangely demonized. The truth is that it WORKS. Government spending on infrastructure projects and investment in science/tech is a good thing (infrastructure spending = short-term benefit from stimulus with multiplier effect, sci/tech = long-term growth).

The demonization of taxes stems from a time when taxes were so high that they discouraged growth because any additional income would be taxed away (the infamous Laffer curve). That is not the case today. Today, we are at the opposite end of the spectrum where taxes are so low on businesses (and their wealthy execs) that growth doesn't increase revenue and income taxes have become regressive, placing an unfair burden on the middle and lower class.

[zaneblue]

Progressive income tax and close the loopholes on corporate taxes. The rich have gotten away with too much for too long.

Give corporate tax breaks to companies who create AMERICAN JOBS! And have UNIONS!

Let that lady move to a banana republic if she likes her low taxes so much.

Obama's not going to listen to the rich when it was the poor and middle class who got him elected.

[Bobotheclown]

It will take a lot of re-regulation and restoration of laws like Glass-Steagall to overcome the destruction to our society done by big business interests since 1970, let alone to recover the economic justice that was put in place by FDR's new deal. Obama has never displayed the truly radical will power that it would take to pull us out of this mess and he has studiously avoided the language of class warfare in his campaign. Maybe he is just doing what he knows he has to do to get elected and then he will reveal his revolutionary agenda in his first 100 days like FDR did. I'll wait but I don't think it will happen.

The larger question is: what are we all going to do when Obama's vision is revealed to be not up to the challenge? No other Democratic will have this kind of populist support for a generation. All other Republicans can taste the inevitable class war victory and are waiting for Obama to fail (and of course will work toward that end) so that they can finish the job and turn America into the corporate controlled state that they dream about with freedom for the rich and wage slavery for the masses. What are we going to do when elections don't work?

[weatherwaxx]

NO one person is up to untangling this mess -- if it weren't for our poor country facing another 4 years of Bushco mismanagement, I'd say let McCain have it and see how he likes it. It'll probably take a month to sweep Dick Cheney's bugs and boobytraps out of the White House (and unless I'm reading Cheney completely wrong, there are a lot of 'em.)

Obama has the sense to hire and inspire intelligent, competent people. Look at his campaign! Unlike Bush, he is not suspicious and afraid of intelligence or education. He may not be perfect, but he's done damned well so far and for pity's sake -- WHAT'S THE ALTERNATIVE? Snake-shakin' Palin and her gang of witch-hunters? "Gamblin' man' McCain and his propensity for crashing cars, planes, and campaigns? Get real!

I expect Obama will make mistakes as President, and I PRAY that he gets the opportunity to do so! But I think his mistakes will be few and far between.

[billofgoods]

oh how audacious to heckle the king of hecklers.

[filo]

Will the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands?

And the rest of you, if you'll just rattle your jewelry.

John Lennon 1963

[RButler]

The financial meltdown. The completely porous security that allowed for 9/11. The deteriorating health care and educational systems. The crumbling infrastructure should all go to prove that there is no such thing as 'intelligent design'. If there was, we'd see proof of it somewhere. BTW. I have a tablet computer with Windows Vista. No 'intelligent design' there either. At least I still have my appendix, that useful body part.

Oh, and I forgot our reliable, secure voting system.

[jennyjen]

So these wall street wizards sat silently by while the subprime mortgage financial nightmare sent the world into a recession and now they want us to take their advice?

Do we have stupid tattoed on our foreheads?

When were you going to sound the alarm? After you made that last payment on your ski chalet?

[NHGranite]

How does this woman explain the bail out? Sure ain't capitalism! If we didn't socialize the losses, there would be no income for her and her pals. In for a trillion, in for a penny. Good sir Robin, Me thinks she needs to be poor for a while.