Hillary doesn't need Wall Street or the extreme left of the Democratic Party

Hillary Clinton

Gary Gensler

There’s something wrong in the first place with a supposed democratic political system in which the most important qualification of a political candidate is his or her fundraising ability. 

President Obama had the edge in both 2008 and 2012 as he continued to be bankrolled by the financial sector.

What was okay for President Obama, however, is considered bad form for Hillary Clinton. Figures, doesn’t it? The guy can get all the money he needs from Wall Street, but a female presidential candidate faces criticism for accepting funds from major financial institutions. 

Maybe the real story here is that Hillary Clinton doesn't need Wall Street, or for that matter the extreme left of the Democratic Party that trashed her in 08.

In the meantime, Bloomberg just published a breathless "exclusive" that 2016 presidential candidate “Hillary Clinton is planning to name Gary Gensler, a former top federal financial regulator and strong advocate for strict Wall Street rules, as the chief financial officer of her campaign, according to a Democrat familiar with the decision.” 

Gensler, in his role as chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, was a leading player in the drafting and then implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act, the financial rules that President Barack Obama signed into law in 2010 in the wake of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Gensler also served in President Bill Clinton's Treasury Department. 

There’s that left flank again:

For Clinton, who has been fighting her left flank’s concern that she is too cozy with Wall Street, Gensler is a notable hire. He became known as someone with sharp elbows —even during his negotiations within the Obama administration—in his push for tighter regulation.

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