In 2009, a still relatively fresh President Obama campaigned all-out for New Jersey’s incumbent governor, Jon Corzine, in a race that was seen as an early referendum on Obama’s own popularity. They even held hands. Corzine (“our Wall Street guy,” as Obama called the ex-Goldman head then) lost.
But no hard feelings on either side, apparently. The Post reports that Corzine, who now runs brokerage firm MF Capital Global, has been asked to help the Obama campaign mend some fences with Wall Street. Corzine was part of a hush-hush sit-down Obama took with top finance types last month, hosted a fund-raiser for the president at his Fifth Avenue home, has ” aggressively worked the phone lines and the cocktail-party circuit,” and “secretly organized” a Four Seasons event for Wall Streeters to meet Bill Daley, Obama’s chief of staff. The Post speculates that Corzine might be angling for an administration job and a return to the public sphere. He’ll have to get Obama to fess up to their rekindled alliance in public first, though. While Corzine’s spokesman “enthusiastically” said his boss was working on behalf of Obama’s reelection, the campaign declined to comment. Let’s see what you bring in, Corzine, and then we’ll think about some public hand-holding again.
