Money, they say, makes the world go round. So how's $10 billion for you? That's a top-end estimate for the record-breaking spending in this 1% presidential election campaign season. But is "season" even the right word, now that such campaigns are essentially four-year events that seem always to be underway? In a political world stuffed with money, it's little wonder that the campaign season floats on a sea of donations. In the case of Jeb Bush, he and his advisers have so far had a laser-focus on the electorate they felt mattered most: big donors. They held off the announcement of his candidacy until last week (though he clearly long knew he was running) so that they could blast out of the gates, dollars-wise, leaving the competition in their financial dust, before the exceedingly modest limits to non-super PAC campaign fundraising kicked in.
And give Jeb credit -- or rather consider him a credit to his father (the 41st president) and his brother (the 43rd), who had Iraq eternally on their minds. It wasn't just that Jeb flubbed the Iraq Question when a reporter asked him recently (yes, he would do it all over again; no, he wouldn't... well, hmmm...), but that Iraq is deeply embedded in the minds of his campaign team, too. His advisers dubbed the pre-announcement campaign they were going to launch to pull in the dollars a "shock-and-awe" operation in the spirit of the invasion of Iraq. Now, having sent in the ground troops, they clearly consider themselves at war. As the New York Times reported recently, the group's top strategist told donors that his super PAC "hopes to 'weaponize' its fund-raising total for the first six months of the year."
The money being talked about: $80-$100 million raised in the first quarter of 2015 and $500 million by June. If reached, these figures would indeed represent shock-and-awe fundraising in the Republican presidential race. As of now, there's no way of knowing whether they're fantasy figures or not, but here's a clue to Jeb's money-raising powers: according to the Washington Post, his advisers have been asking donors not to give more than a million dollars now; they are, that is, trying to cap donations for the moment. (As the Post's Chris Cillizza wrote,"The move reflects concerns among Bush advisers that accepting massive sums from a handful of uber-rich supporters could fuel a perception that the former governor is in their debt.") And having spent just about every pre-announcement day for months doing fundraisers and scouring the country for money, while preserving the fiction that he might not be interested in the presidency, Jeb, according to the New York Times, bragged to a group of donors that "he believed his political action committee had raised more money in 100 days than any other modern Republican political operation."
Let's not forget, of course, that we're not talking about anyone; we're talking about a Bush. We're talking about the possibility of becoming number three (or rather Bush 45) in the Oval Office. We're talking about what is, by now, a fabled money-shaking, money-making, money-raising machine of a family. We're talking dynasty and when it comes to money and the Bushes (as with money and that other potential dynasty of our moment), no one knows more on the subject than Nomi Prins, former Wall Street exec and author of All the Presidents' Bankers: The Hidden Alliances That Drive American Power. In her now ongoing TomDispatch series on the political dynasties of our moment, fundraising, and the Big Banks, think of her latest post as an essential backgrounder on the election you have less and less to do with, in which Wall Street, the Koch brothers, Sheldon Adelson, and the rest of the crew do most of the essential voting with their wallets. Tom
All In
The Bush Family Goes for Number Three (With the Help of Its Bankers)
By Nomi Prins[This piece has been adapted and updated by Nomi Prins from her book All the Presidents' Bankers: The Hidden Alliances That Drive American Power, recently out in paperback (Nation Books).]
It's happening. As expected, dynastic politics is prevailing in campaign 2016. After a tease about as long as Hillary's, Jeb Bush (aka Jeb!) officially announced his presidential bid last week. Ultimately, the two of them will fight it out for the White House, while the nation's wealthiest influencers will back their ludicrously expensive gambit.
And here's a hint: don't bet on Jeb not to make it through the Republican gauntlet of 12 candidates (so far). After all, the really big money's behind him. Last December, even though out of public office since 2007, he had captured the support of 73% of the Wall Street Journal's "richest CEOs." Though some have as yet sidestepped declarations of fealty, count on one thing: the big guns will fall into line. They know that, given his family connections, Jeb is their best path to the White House and they're not going to blow that by propping up some Republican lightweight whose father and brother weren't president, not when Hillary, with all her connections and dynastic power, will be the opponent. That said, in the Bush-Clinton battle to come, no matter who wins, the bankers and billionaires will emerge victorious.
The issue of political blood and family lines in Washington is not new. There have been four instances in our history in which presidents have been bonded by blood. Our second president John Adams and eighth president John Quincy Adams were father and son. Our ninth president William Henry Harrison and our 23rd president Benjamin Harrison were grandfather and grandson. Theodore and Franklin Delano Roosevelt were cousins. And then, of course, there were our 41st and 43rd presidents, George H.W. and George W.
If Jeb becomes the 45th president, it will be the first time that three administrations share the same blood and "dynastic" will have a new meaning in America.
The Bush Legacy
The Bush political-financial legacy began when President Ronald Reagan chose Jeb's father, George H.W., as his vice president. Reagan was also the first president to choose a Wall Street CEO, Donald Regan, as Treasury secretary. Then-CEO of Merrill Lynch, he happened to be a Bush family friend. And talk about family tradition: once upon a time (in 1900, to be exact), Jeb's great-grandfather, George Herbert Walker, founded G.W. Walker & Company. It was eventually acquired by -- you guessed it! -- Merrill Lynch, which was consumed by Bank of America at the height of the 2008 financial crisis.
That merger was pressed by, among others, George W. Bush's Treasury Secretary (and former Goldman Sachs chairman and CEO), Hank Paulson. It helped John Thain, Paulson's former number two at Goldman Sachs, who was by then Merrill Lynch's CEO, out of a tight spot. Now chairman and CEO of CIT Group, Thain is also a prominent member of the Republican Party who sponsored high-ticket fundraisers for John McCain during his 2008 campaign. Expect him to be there for Jeb. Paulson endorsed Jeb for president on April 15th. That's how these loops go.
As vice president, George H.W. co-ran a task force with Donald Regan dedicated to breaking down the constraints of the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act, so that Wall Street banks could become ever bigger and more complex. Once president, Bush promoted deregulation, while reconfirming Alan Greenspan, who did the same, as the chairman of the Federal Reserve. In 1999, after President Bill Clinton (Hillary!) finished the job that Bush had started by overseeing the repeal of Glass-Steagall, banks began merging like mad and engaging in increasingly risky and opaque practices that led to the financial crisis that came to a head in George W.'s presidency. In other words, it's a small world at the top.
The meaning of all this: no other GOP candidate has Jeb's kind of legacy political-financial power. Period. To grasp the interconnections between the Bush family and Wall Street that will put heft and piles of money behind his candidacy, however, it's necessary to step back in time and see just how his family helped lead us to this moment of his.
Bush Wins
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