Obama's fancy pants dinner with Wall St execs

The 2012 presidential election campaigns have officially kicked off, and while a few potential candidates have already stepped forward for the G.O.P. nomination, President Barack Obama is raising money for his campaign in style: with a $35,800-per-plate dinner with the top Wall Street bankers and executives.

The dinner was held Thursday night in Manhattan at Daniel, the Upper East Side restaurant of chef Daniel Boulud, for a cohort of bankers, private equity executives, and hedge fund managers, including Robert Wolf, chairman of UBS Americas; Blair W. Effron, partner and co- founder of Centerview Partners LLP; Marc Lasry, managing partner and founder of Avenue Capital Group; Mark Gallogly, a managing principal of Centerbridge Partners; James Rubin, managing director of BC Partners; and Frank Brosens of Taconic Capital Advisors LP.

Interestingly, the top banking execs from Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase were not expected to attend the dinner.

Obama has been on a fundraising roll among the top finance, business, and technology organizations in the country since announcing his plan to run for re-election in 2012. In April, Obama attended an event at the home of the wife of former governor of New Jersey Jon Corzine, who is also the former CEO of Goldman Sachs.

But the president is in strange company as the people he’s now attempting to raise money from are the same people he previously blasted in his derisive remarks about large banker bonuses. As a result, financial support from Wall Street execs has been shaky, with only a few actually making donations since Obama kicked off his re-election campaign.

But Obama still has friends in high places. Back in October, the president paid a visit to Silicon Valley in an effort to rally support for Democratic candidates in the mid-term elections. While hanging in the Valley, Obama attended two fundraisers, one at the home of clean tech VC Steve Westly, and another at the Palo Alto home of Google executive Marissa Mayer, where seats for the fundraiser dinner went for $30,000 a plate.

During that time, he also met up with Apple CEO Steve Jobs in a private meeting in a hotel room in San Francisco, where the two reportedly discussed education, American competitiveness, clean technology, and more. Jobs well-known for his support for the Democratic party.  In 2000, he donated $50,000 to the Democratic National Committee and in 2006, he donated $26,700 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.  In 2003, former Vice President Al Gore joined Apple’s board of directors.

Image source: danielnyc.com