Pathetic: Obama Uses War on Goldman Sachs to Raise Money on Web

This is cheesy on so many levels, but not unexpected with this sleazy crew. Here you have a guy who raised the most money of any politician from the company he's now declared war on and now he turns around and uses them to piggyback off and direct people searching on the web for information about Goldman Sachs to his own personal website.

What a disgrace this man is.

President Obama is bringing his war on Wall Street to the enemy's turf.

He'll make his pitch for financial reform in the heart of lower Manhattan Thursday - even as his team make hay of the Goldman Sachs fiasco with a tech savvy appeal to Democratic donors.

Internet surfers who entered "Goldman Sachs SEC" into Google were directed to the president's campaign Web site via a sponsored link titled "Help Change Wall Street."

The White House's political arm paid for the keywords -- but would not say how much.

The tactic provided the latest evidence of how Obama and the Democratic National Committee are using the Securities and Exchange Commission's bombshell fraud suit against the financial giant to push financial-reform legislation through Congress.

But showing it, too, was gearing up for a political fight, Goldman Sachs hired Obama's former White House counsel, Gregory Craig, Politico reported last night.

Meanwhile, Democratic former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, speculated yesterday that there was "no coincidence" to the timing of the SEC suit.

And Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) wrote in a letter sent to the SEC, "It must be nice for Democrats that the SEC's filing against Goldman Sachs so conveniently fits into their political agenda."

The White House denied any link between the legislative push and the regulator's charges.

"The SEC doesn't notify the White House of its enforcement actions, and certainly didn't do so in this case," presidential press secretary Robert Gibbs said.

"Quite honestly, there was plenty of evidence . . . before the SEC got involved of the need to create new rules of the road."

The White House's Internet ad campaign drew Goldman into a click-for-click clash of the search terms yesterday, with the financial house buying its own ads to compete with those purchased by the president's team.

Goldman's ad featured the company's statement in response to charges filed Friday by the SEC.

The president's political operation says the Internet push bought up numerous other relevant search terms and phrases and started days before the SEC action against Goldman. They say they bought the term "Goldman SEC" after the lawsuit was filed.

The links -- some titled "Fight Wall Street Greed" -- led to the Web site of the White House's political arm, Organizing for America.

The chutzpah is just off the charts. They claim to be "fighting greed" and are raising money for Obama. It's beyond sleazy, but again, all too predictable for these guttersnipes.

Hot Air links. Thanks!

Update: To say this whole thing stinks is an understatement. Darrell Issa has a few questions. Interesting to note:

Nevertheless, the events of the past five days have fueled legitimate suspicion on the part of the American people that the Commission has attempted to assist the White House, the Democratic Party, and Congressional Democrats by timing the suit to coincide with the Senate’s consideration of financial regulatory legislation, or by providing Democrats with advance notice. In fact, the aggressive campaign by Democrats in support of the legislation neatly coincided with the Commission’s announcement of the suit. For example:

--The Commission approved the Goldman suit in a vote that spit along party lines – a rare occurrence for approvals of enforcement litigation.

--Before the Commission had released its announcement, the New York Times published on its website a story describing the suit.

--Less than half an hour after the Times story’s publication, Organizing for America, the successor organization to Obama for America and now a project of the Democratic National Committee (“DNC”), sent millions of supporters an e-mail message from President Obama urging support for “Wall Street Reform.”

--Within hours, the Democratic National Committee had purchased AdWords advertising from Google, Inc. The DNC’s Google campaign fundraising advertisement, headed “Fight Wall Street Greed,” appeared whenever a user ran a Google search for the phrase “Goldman Sachs SEC.” It read, “Help Pres. Obama Reform Wall Street and Create Jobs. Families First!” and included a link to www.BarackObama.com, the website of Organizing for America.

--Democrats in Congress and the Administration have heralded the Commission’s suit against Goldman as a welcome boost to their case for the legislation.

More from Doug Ross and Allahpundit.

Oh, and if Obama and his gang of crooks didn't do anything wrong, why is their link suddenly gone?