Businesspeople for Obama
May 8, 2008
Members of the Greater Baltimore Committee were treated Wednesday to a prediction that is becoming more and more common in the wake of Tuesday’s primary elections in North Carolina and Indiana. Chris Matthews, guest speaker at the GBC’s annual meeting and host of MSNBC’s “Hardball,” told the dinner crowd that he thought the next U.S. President would be either Barack Obama (this drew loud cheers from some sections of the audience) or John McCain (fewer cheers).
Matthews seemed taken aback by the response. An earlier mention of Obama by Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown drew a similar applause, and not so much when Brown mentioned fellow Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton.
“I thought this was a business group,” Matthews said, drawing laughter from the crowd. “You guys are turning tail. Boy, not very loyal.”
Business folks are generally seen as economically conservative, but I would imagine they are happiest when policymakers have a keen eye for the business climate. Do you think Obama and the Democratic party are now seen as more effective economically, or was this a peculiarity of the particular crowd at dinner Wednesday?
ANDY ROSEN, Business Writer
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I believe the applause in favor of Senator Obama was because of the particular crowd that attended the GBC’s Annual Meeting and dinner. This was a gathering of the business and political elite from Maryland, the key word being elite. In the Mid-Atlantic region, affluent folks tend to be more liberal than in most parts of the country where the wealthy lean more towards the Republican candidates and possess more conservative values.
Perhaps the biggest reason the demographics of the crowd shaped up the way they did was because the smaller and medium size business owners which make up a far greater percentage of the economic landscape were for the most part not in attendance at this meeting. These folks tend to be far more conservative economically, maybe now more than ever in Maryland because of the tax increases brought by the recent Special Session.
Chris Matthews is a brilliant political mind, whose entertaining, passionate and insightful, but appeared to be slightly crossed up by the political landscape of Maryland, which other than maybe Califorinia is unlike anyplace else.