Rahm Emanuel and His Wall Street Connections

"The Illinois congressman, whose fund-raising abilities are legendary, was the top House recipient in the 2008 election cycle of contributions from hedge funds, private equity firms and the securities/investment industry.

His top contributors over the course of his Congressional career were Madison Dearborn Partners ($93,600), AT&T Inc. ($86,450), Swiss bank UBS AG ($85,100), Goldman Sachs ($74,750) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. ($73,600) and Dresdner, Kleinwort & Wasserstein ($73,250). (Several of those companies were also big contributors to Obama.)"

The large contributions is one of my biggest problems with elected officials in America.  No "average
American" will ever be elected.  To get the publicity necessary to reach the masses of voters, candidates need millions of dollars.  First of al, if you have millions of dollars or are friends with people that have millions of dollars and thousands that they are willing to contribute to your campaign, you are not likely rubbing shoulders with middle, working, or poor Americans, let alone genuinely concerned and feeling their needs and struggles.  Secondly, if you are getting contributions from the biggest corporations and banks, you will have to give them something in return.  Nobody gives huge sums of money out of kindness, LEAST OF ALL the major American corporations!!!!! Therefor, the "average American" is not being accurately represented nor catered to in this democracy. 

"Many of Emanuel’s relationships with Wall Street’s movers and shakers on Wall Street were personal. After devoting himself to the Clinton White House in the 1990s, Emanuel embarked on a new career in business, saying he wanted to make money to ensure his family’s security.

In 1999, he went to work for Bruce Wasserstein, a major Democratic donor and Wall Street financier, becoming a partner in the Chicago office of investment bank Wasserstein Perella & Co. Over the course of two-and-a-half years as managing partner, he reportedly made more than $16 million.

In those years, he also joined several boards, becoming a director of housing financier Freddie Mac in a period when the agency was plagued with scandal involving campaign contributions and accounting irregularities."