We’re reaching the point in which Bush’s only die-hard fans left are Christian Coalition members and oil executives. The latest example: even Corporate America is shifting its political allegiance.
The Wall Street Journal reported today that what was once a “solid wall of business support” for Bush is slowly crumbling — and Kerry is taking advantage of it.
Those small cracks [in Bush’s support], some stemming from dismay with record budget deficits, others from fears that his foreign policies are clouding the global business climate, have grown wide enough for Sen. John Kerry to launch a behind-the-scenes effort to woo business executives. While the Democratic candidate has no chance of matching the incumbent Republican’s business support, even a few notable defectors could help blunt Mr. Bush’s advantage, raise doubts with swing voters and draw more money into the Kerry coffers.
The subtle shift is starting to produce surprising endorsements for Kerry from the business community.
For Mr. Kerry, last week’s endorsement by onetime corporate icon Lee Iacocca, the former Chrysler Corp. chairman, was only the first of what his campaign promises will be more such staged appearances with business leaders. Mr. Kerry already had won backing from Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett and Apple Computer’s Steve Jobs.
At The Wall Street Journal’s recent “D: All Things Digital” conference of senior technology executives for large and small companies and venture capitalists, an informal show of hands revealed many more planning to vote for Mr. Kerry than Mr. Bush. Even “Undecided” beat the president. The high-technology sector, with its younger and less-traditional players, is perhaps the most fertile ground for Mr. Kerry, as it was for Democrat Al Gore in 2000.
Some of the concerns are over the deficit:
Among Kerry supporters is Eric Best, a managing director at Morgan Stanley, who says Mr. Bush’s tax cuts go too far at the expense of mounting deficits. “I was raised as a fiscal conservative, and I think his fiscal policy is scary,” he says.
While Bush’s failures internationally haven’t gone unnoticed:
Mr. Best, who remembers Mr. Bush as an upper-class dormitory proctor at Phillips Academy Andover boarding school, says that what really motivates him to stump for Mr. Kerry is the hostility the global strategist finds as he travels.
“I can testify to the extraordinary destruction of ‘American Brand Value’ accomplished by this administration, from Europe to Hong Kong to Shanghai to Tokyo, and beyond,” he wrote in a recent e-mail that he widely distributed. “If any CEO of a global multinational had accomplished this for his enterprise as quickly and radically as George Bush Jr. has done for the U.S., he would be replaced by the board in no time.”
Then there was this gem:
Richard Gooding says he has heard enough. The owner of a Denver investment and real-estate firm says he and his wife — self-described “automatic Republicans” who long gave votes and money to the party — are helping Mr. Kerry.
“We think Afghanistan made sense. Iraq didn’t,” he says. “I don’t like the cost of it. I don’t like the loss of lives for it. Don’t like what it has done to our relations with virtually every other country in the world.” The deficit, he says, is “an embarrassment to Republicans.”
Just to be clear, Bush will still enjoy the overwhelming support of Corporate America, both politically and financially. Almost 75% of all Bush contributions come from the business community, while less than half of Kerry’s contributions do.
But, this article seems to suggest the GOP stranglehold is weakening. Wall Street ultimately wants a strong business market and international stability that promotes trade. At this point, they’re getting neither from Bush and they’re likely to get both from Kerry.
“Sen. Kerry will secure even more business supporters than Bill Clinton did in 1992,” says investment banker and former deputy Treasury Secretary Roger Altman, who, along with former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, is among those helping Mr. Kerry make his case to business. “The primary reasons are a recognition that deficit reduction is necessary, and that America’s standing in the world needs to be repaired.”