"I know something you don't..."Clay Risen has an interesting article in the Joe Lieberman Weekly about Barak Obama and the fact that in the first quarter of this year, he raised more money from investment banks ($479,209) than any candidate in either party (Rudy G was second with $437,442).  He also nearly doubled Hillary Clinton's take of $47,900 with $85,350 from private equity firms.

Risen then goes on to note with irony that at the same time as he's pulling in these high dollar donors, Obama is also the "grassroots candidate," which I think is a bit unfair. Nobody ever criticizes Republicans for appealing to LCD lizard brains with one hand and raking in corporate cash with the other.  His speculation as to why Obama outstrips Clinton, however, I thought was interesting.  Why are these young hedge fund managers flocking to Obama?  What is the upside?  Risen works his way through the usual tropes — baby boomers vs. Gen x-ers, establishment Democrat Clinton vs. international "hyper-wired" Obama — before getting to what I think is the heart of it:

There is also a more Machiavellian element to these young turks' support. Precisely because the Clinton dynasty has been around so long, the door to her innermost fundraising circles–and thus influence and possible White House posts–is largely closed. The top jobs in a hypothetical Hillary Clinton White House aren't exactly taken, but they're not available to newcomers, either. Obama's door, on the other hand, is wide open. So it's no surprise that while Wall Street stalwart Rattner is a big-time Hillary backer, his right-hand man at Quadrangle, Steiner, is going with Obama. The same is the case with Jamie Rubin, the son of Clinton's economic consigliore Robert. "If we all lined up for Hillary, we wouldn't have even gotten into the anteroom, let alone seats at the table," one of Obama's young fundraisers told New York. "But that's not how it is with Barack. We're already at the table."

To think that someone can win a Presidential race without courting big money is naive and criticizing a serious candidate for doing so is unrealistic.  There probably is no room at the Clinton inn and it's quite natural that young, ambitious money would seek Obama out as their candidate. It's actually of more concern that at the same time Obama is courting hedge fund managers he blew off the firefighters union.  It may be nothing, there may just have truly been a scheduling conflict and some may be jumping the gun to conclude that he is not going to court labor based on this one incident. 

Still, the firefighters will (or at least could) play a big part in cracking Guiliani's reputation as "America's Mayor" and I have to say I'm not sure that a Democratic presidential candidate who isn't actively trying to win their support is making the absolute smartest political move.  And as someone who thinks that the future of progressive politics is going to depend on working closely with labor to push workers' rights, it's something that certainly bears watching.