All millionaires regardless of partyAccording to the CNBC Millionaire Survey, Hillary is the runaway favorite for president among millionaires (and billionaires) at 34%. Not many millionaires are pumpin' for Bernie, though, just 7%, same as the number who want Kasich. And if you just ask millionaires who are Democrats... well, that's Hillary's wheelhouse. She gets 76% and Bernie a mere 13%. Oddly, 2% of Democratic millionaires are for Trumpf. And among GOP millionaires, that percentage for the bigoted real estate agent goes up to 15%. 3% of Republican millionaires are for Hillary. None want Bernie. Some people-- albeit not millionaires-- look at the prospect of another Clinton presidency as pretty horrific and their assessments of Hillary are... unkind. Stephen Lendman, for example, seems positively unenthusiastic and actually sees her as even worse than the Republicans! Now that really is pushing it! "Her public record," he wrote, "shows she’s a reliable Wall Street tool. Her self-proclaimed populism is pure fantasy. She represents pure evil, opposite the image she tries to portray, a transparent front, easily discovered by examining her deplorable public record... Her scheme for reigning in Wall Street is empowering its major players more than ever. Her top campaign contributors include Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase and Morgan Stanley-- buying influence to assure a Clinton presidency will support their interests... If elected president, she’ll continue dirty business as usual, supporting monied interests, especially Wall Street crooks and war profiteers."Among Republican millionaires and billionairess though, Rubio (at 26%) is the man who's corralling the most contributors and backers, followed, oddly, by Dr. Ben (16%), Trumpf (15%), and the Jebster (11%).
The poll shows that millionaire voters differ dramatically from the broader population, especially among Republicans. While national polls still show Trump out front among the GOP candidates, he failed to break into the top two slots among millionaires.The poll was conducted before the terror attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California, and before the candidate's recent comments on preventing Muslims from entering the U.S."What surprised me was where Trump is among these voters," said George Walper, president of Spectrem Group, the nonpartisan wealth research firm that conducted the survey. "They're wealthy but don't see Trump as one of them."Granted, the wealthy are often a poor barometer for election results: Mitt Romney was their favorite candidate in 2012. What's more, being seen as the favorite candidate of the rich could ultimately be seen as a liability in an especially populist election cycle.Yet because the wealthy now play an outsized role in campaign financing, the poll could signal a wave of cash moving toward Rubio and away from others on the Republican side.The survey is also the latest evidence that the wealthy are quickly coalescing around Rubio as their favorite candidate. This week, billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin and Art Pope, owner of Variety Wholesalers, publicly endorsed Rubio. Both are major donors to the Republican Party.Paul Singer, another hedge fund billionaire, is also backing Rubio, and billionaire Florida car magnate Norman Braman has been a longtime supporter.
Nice charts, right?Republican millionairesDemocratic millionairesMillionaires who identify as IndependentsBernie wasn't courting millionaires Tuesday. He was in one of the poorest parts of Baltimore, Sandtown-Winchester, Freddie Gray's old stomping ground. "We are the wealthiest country in the history of the world, and every year we're seeing more and more millionaires and more and more billionaires," said Sanders. "But in communities like this, what we're seeing is kids dropping out of schools, being in bad schools, being in dilapidated housing."The area is dysfunctional and the residents suffer from every form of urban blight known to man, high crime rates, staggering eviction rates, to leaky roofs, inoperable appliances, rodent infestations, collapsed floors and ceilings and lead poisoning (can cause a decrease in IQ, behavioral disorders, hyperactivity and a lack of impulse control).When Bernie visited the NY Times editorial board the other day, he was asked to answer a question from a random reader, Nick Costantino, who asked him how he would describe the U.S. to a Martian, a Martian named Astor.
"I tell Astor that the United States has a history that we should be extraordinarily proud of. We have a constitution which is the envy of the world. We are a nation made up of immigrants, people from all over the world who bring so much to our country."But what I would also tell Astor is that today our country faces very, very serious problems in terms of a declining middle class, income and wealth inequality, climate change, and many other issues. And that if we are going to be successful as a nation, we can’t allow ourselves to be divided up. We’ve got to come together to create in this nation-- the wealthiest in the history of the world-- a country that works for all people, not just the few on the top."
Bernie to the architect of America's catastrophic, Ayn Randian economic agenda (under Reagan, Bush I, Clinton and Bush II), Alan Greenspan: "Come with me to Vermont. Meet real people. The country clubs and the cocktail parties are not real America. The millionaires and the billionaires are the exception to the rule."