This post is part of our feature on Money Winners of 2008. See all 20.
Barack Obama became the king of fund raising in 2008, having received a record amount in donations for his presidential campaign in the neighborhood of $750 million, and finishing with over $100 million in the bank. These contributions factored into a winning, grass-roots campaign strategy.
Actually he used a two-prong approach that enabled him to tap into the existing Democratic fund-raising machine attracting large donors through various traditional means, such as banquets and A-list parties. At the same time he was able to play the role of outsider and underdog to rally his grass-roots support among the young and commonly disenfranchised, handshake by handshake, and through a very adept use of the internet. The internet provided a constant source of connectivity with his followers, and allowed his team to respond to any news item with immediacy.
Now, president-elect Obama will be hoping to continue to amaze as he is tasked with guiding a devastated economy on the brink of collapse back to some semblance of equilibrium.
It will be interesting to watch campaign pledges fall by the way side as the reality of actually having to do something replaces the great orator's just talking about doing something. From my perspective that is actually a good thing, because I am not in favor of starting a lot of new federal programs or greatly expanding existing failed ones.
Our first black president was not supposed to overtake Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party's nomination, and he was not the likely winner in the general election in the early going, according to most political aficionados. He and his team proved them all wrong, and he has successfully endured the longest campaign in memory. In this regard, all of the candidates deserve a standing ovation for their stamina and perseverance.
While Obama may not be able to escape the historic event of becoming our first black president, it is a fact that all Americans can take pride in, that we were able to minimize race and maximize the stature of the man during a time of great difficulty.
Many of Obama's rivals have been rewarded with appointments to important posts; first was Senator Joe Biden as his vice presidential running mate, then most notably Senator Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, and most recently New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson as Secretary of Commerce.
There has been little controversy in the business community as most have been very supportive of his economic team. And for the most part that has been true throughout his list of appointments. He even asked Republican appointee and former director of he CIA, Robert Gates, to remain on as Secretary of Defense.
The coming year is likely to be a very difficult one economically for many people in the United States and around the world. I wish Barack Obama good luck and continued success, for everyone's sake. Hopefully some of the shrewdness his team used in winning an election will be transferable to winning the economic battle.
Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture and planning firm. He writes the columns Chasing Value and Serious Money.
Be sure to check out more Money Winners of 2008.
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Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein pulls a Jeff Skilling in an interview
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-12-2008 @ 1:15PM
Dean-Ross Schessler said...
First off this comment is written at 10:15 am December 12, 2008 and this article shows a post date of December 15, 2008 -- how can that be possible?
Second, this upstart is not black he is mulatto, he is a half breed, he is half black and I for one, with the economy in the state that it is in, can only hope along with the rest of Americans that he is not also half assed and half liar and political con-man.
The following paragraph is the most powerful in this whole piece and deserves a re-read for sure:
"It will be interesting to watch campaign pledges fall by the way side as the reality of actually having to do something replaces the great orator's just talking about doing something. From my perspective that is actually a good thing, because I am not in favor of starting a lot of new federal programs or greatly expanding existing failed ones."
There is so much reality written here and the impact of that reality will be a further crippling of the economy because America was piped pipered into believing promises they wanted to believe instead of facts they should have considered and addressed. He or the people who have manipulated this nobody into the political limelight as they puppet have now positioned the mulatto as their mouth piece to enact a transition from democracy to socialism and erode the principles and freedoms so many Americans daily take for granted and have through apathy, repeat, apathy, greed and laziness for the 'fairy-tale' better life (that had nothing to do with building this great nation) have been gullible enough to blindly endorse. The mulatto%u2019s lucky number is 666 and the over all armageddon will be frightening for the middle class and the citizen core of this tumbling great nation of America.
Your final paragraph very clearly relates this very point and I agree with what you have written, but I think you would agree with me that no matter how optimistic we try to be we are in for some hell that only the duped middle class will be able to be blamed for inflicting upon all of us and themselves for the manner if which they mishandled there responsibility as Americans to learn ALL the facts before they vote and to vote based upon having learned the facts.
12-14-2008 @ 2:36PM
MOONBEAM said...
THE GREAT AMOUNT THAT WAS RAISED BY THE OBAMA ELECTION TEEM AMAZED ME. I WONDER HOW MUCH OF THE CONTRIBUTIONS CAME FROM IRAN AND IRAQ? IS IT ILLEGAL FOR FOREIGNERS TO DONATE MONEY FOR OUR ELECTIONS? WE NEED TO QUESTION ALL THE COMPUTER GENERATED SMALL AMOUNTS THAT CANNOT BE TRACED. ARE THEY FROM ONE DONOR AS SEVERAL LEGAL LIMIT DONATIONS. ARE THE CONTRIBUTIONS FROM ONE OR TWO FOREIGNERS; SEVERAL MILLION DOLLARS CHUNKED INTO LEGAL LIMIT SIZE DONATIONS? I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT WITH THE ECONOMY SO BAD, ESPECIALLY FOR THE POOR,THAT ANY GREAT AMOUNT WAS DONATED FROM OUR POOR CITIZENS THE SO CALLED GRASS ROOTS.. WHERE IS THE LEGAL OVERSIGHT ON CAMPAIGN FUNDS? WHERE IS THE PRESS OVERSIGHT ON THIS?. WHY ARE THERE SO MANY THINGS THAT ARE TABOO TO CHECK INTO?. WHY??? WHY ARE WE AMERICANS NOT OUTRAGED OVER THESE COVER-UPS? WE NEED TO QUESTION HIS FUNDING FOR COLLEGE. WE NEED TO QUESTION HIS LEGALITY OF BEING A NATURAL BORN AMERICAN CITIZEN. WE NEED TO QUESTION HOW LEGAL WAS CAMPAIGN FUNDING FOR HIS SENATE SEAT IN THE CHICAGO IL. ELECTION. WHY IS THE COUNTRY PUTTING IT'S HEAD IN THE SAND?
12-14-2008 @ 4:56PM
Sheldon L said...
Makes you wonder -- all this conspiracy stuff coming from a guy called "MOONBEAM".
12-26-2008 @ 10:43PM
condomimi said...
I can't believe the hypocrisy of this article and Obama even being mentioned with regards to the huge amount of money his campaign garnered! Seems to me he would want everyone to forget about it instead of applauding his acceptance of fraudulent donations. Why there has not been a public outcry to audit his campaign records shows once again the media's lack of representation when it comes to reporting the "questionable" activities connected to this charlatan. To begin with, he renegs on his promise to use public funding and then it is discovered by the FEC that he is accepting foreign donations. So, Obama's camp removes all the safeguards to prevent the tracking of illegal donations. Obama has never had to answered on the 66-page, single-spaced list of illegal donations found by the FEC. The made-up names, the bogus addresses and the multiple donations (far exceeding the legal limit) processed on the same credit card number to his campaign. Obama has never returned all the illegal funds AND the FEC is fully aware of this. Then, to make sure the FEC can't find them quilty of accepting repeated donations from the same credit card numbers, their donors begin using untraceable purchased credit cards. How convenient that this practice started after the FEC discovered the Obama camp allowing amounts exceeding the legal limit on the same credit cards! Now, Obama displays his regal lifestyle and apparent limitless access to funds by taking a Christmas vacation via chartered jet to a $9 Million water front beach house in Hawaii. When the rest of America is feeling the pinch of the down economy and the government is having to bail out the banks and numerous businesses, the "crown prince" is flaunting his access to unlimited funds from some unknown source to enjoy this extravagant get-away. It seems the Obama's can come up with the funds when necessary to pay back student loans (that never existed), purchase a million dollar home in Chicago and send their children to private schools. Maybe we should all be friends with Rezko, since that is where the funds seem to start! Way to go Obama - you have found the golden egg. I hope he keeps talking - just like Gov. Blago because they could upset your comfortable little apple cart! IT must get tiresome waiting for the other shoe to drop, but drop - it will!