Goldman Donors Desert Obama

Goldman Sachs execs and employees have abandoned President Obama in the biggest corporate campaign finance U-turn on record, a Wall Street Journal analysis finds. The firm's workers gave Obama more than $1 million in 2008—more than any other American corporation—but have given him just $136,000 this time around and have given $900,000 to Mitt Romney's campaign, plus another $900,000 to a pro-Romney super PAC. Similar shifts have happened at other financial services firms, making the industry Romney's top source of campaign funds.

Goldman employees say that after he took office, they felt betrayed by the White House and offended by the president's anti-Wall Street rhetoric and attacks on the "fat cat bankers" who had raised millions of dollars for his campaign. "Look at what he did—he attacked those guys and made it personal," a financial services lobbyist says. "In the old days you give money because you want to have a seat at the table even if you get screwed. But they weren't even offering a seat at the table." (More Goldman Sachs stories.)