Hillary Clinton Goes On Wall Street Fundraising Spree, Picks Up Bush Donors

Though she was never a stranger to Wall Street, it now appears that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is confident enough in her mathematical advantage over Senator Bernie Sanders that she has resumed taking money from Wall Street, with a vengeance.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Clinton has raised $4.2 million from Wall Street, $344,000 just in March. WSJ also reports that an analysis of donor records reveals that donors for former Governor Jeb Bush and Senator Marco Rubio have shifted to Clinton as their preferred candidates left the presidential race.

Former Secretary Clinton’s campaign staff has reportedly been making calls to top Bush donors in recent days in the aftermath of Donald Trump securing the Republican presidential nomination, but the overtures likely came sooner, and for good reason.

Hillary Clinton’s policies closely align with moderate Republicans and DC conservatives. She is neoconservative on foreign policy, liberal yet flexible on social issues, and pro-Big Business on most everything else. That Hillary Clinton ever generated so much antipathy from the Republican establishment is a testament to how deranging and opportunistic partisanship can be.

But no matter how sincere or feigned the animus was between the GOP establishment and Clinton, it seems to have thoroughly dissipated. As the WSJ reported:

An analysis by the nonpartisan organization Crowdpac found that more than 500 donors, including many Wall Street executives, who gave more than $200 to a Republican who later dropped out, including Messrs. Bush and Rubio, have since given to Mrs. Clinton. More than one-third of the money that business interests have donated to presidential campaigns has gone to Mrs. Clinton’s coffers, the Journal’s analysis found… “Business interests are generally not sold on the notion that Trump will be a more business-friendly candidate; there’s a lot about Trump they don’t know,” said Ed Rogers, a Republican lobbyist. “They know Hillary. And they know that she is not antibusiness.”

Such Wall Street and corporate elite endorsements and contributions only heighten the curiosity over what former Secretary Clinton said in her $225,000 a shot speeches before Wall Street executives. Clinton will not release transcripts of the speeches, but scattered reports indicate they were very complementary, with one attendee claiming that Clinton “sounded more like a Goldman Sachs managing director” than a progressive politician, warning of increased regulation and scrutiny (as Clinton has falsely claimed about other speeches).

Hillary Clinton tried to lean as left as possible, without actually moving her feet, to head off a challenge from Senator Sanders in the Democratic presidential primary. Now that she and her campaign team feel they have successfully done that, Clinton looks ready to come home to serve the neoliberal elite she always has.