I read an interesting article in The New Republic about why hedge fund managers have turned on President Obama. The article opens with a 2007 story about a hedge fund manager meet-and-greet with candidate Obama in which he was asked what he would do with the tax rates of those in the room. Obama is said to have shot back quickly and decisively for all to absorb that he would raise them. The guys who play hardball for a living had thrown Obama a high and tight fastball and he had bounced a base hit up the middle. The report is that the hedge fund managers loved him. They loved that he came from the schools they attended, they loved that he was smart, they loved that he was a change from President Bush with whom they had all grown tired. To show their love for candidate Obama they gave and raised lots of money to convert candidate Obama to President Obama.
Now, however, he is roundly despised by the lords of Wall Street and the mega-rich hedge fund managers. The author goes into great detail trying to understand why this happened and how in 3 short years could fawning affection turn into visceral hate. It is a rather long article with lots of hand wringing and analysis looking into the transformation of relations with the hedge fund community. We are treated to a walk through the policy and public statements of President Obama as well as the psyche of the self made uber-rich hedge fund lord. None of which I believe hits the mark.
I think the hedge fund community has dumped Obama because they are achievers but more importantly they are people who deliver results. They get things done. They have a daily, monthly, and yearly scorecard on their success or failure. The strategies they deploy, the decisions they make, the people they hire...all have to succeed. You know why they hate Obama? Because none of the stuff that Obama has been touting to fix the ills of the economy, the national debt, or the health care mess will work...and to borrow some of the hedge fund manager's billingsgate, people who get things done don't have time for bullshit from people who don't. I don't think the hedge fund managers would be upset if Obama raised their taxes if it fixed the debt problem, but it won't. Given the social views of many of the hedge fund community, I doubt they have a problem with a big government health care solution, if it fixed the problem, but as everyone knows, Obamacare doesn't. I don't know that the hedge fund elites hate Obama, they just have no use for him, no time for him, and they hate bad investments.
I think the author could have cut to the chase by noting that these hedge fund managers are doers and achievers with very short attention spans and little patience for bullshit. When Obama become philosopher-in-chief, professor-in-chief, and patronizer-in-chief, these type-A achievers tossed him overboard, just like they would any bad investment...which he turned out to be. They now describe him in locker room language that the author interprets as disdain and hate. But again, I think that's just the way these achievers work to get things done. They don't do focus groups, they don't fill the air with trite platitudes intended to finesse. They get things done, they fix things when they are broken. Their investment in Obama was broken. Now it is fixed.
