LONGTIME DEMOCRAT AND OBAMA CONTRIBUTOR ALLEGEDLY DEFECTS TO ROMNEY CAMP

[Spiraling Leopard]

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/longtime-democrat-and-obama-contributor-allegedly-defects-to-romney-camp/

Jamie Dimon, a JP Morgan CEO and once financial supporter of President Obama, has allegedly defected to the Mitt Romney camp.

Dimon, a longtime Democrat who was once rumored to be on the “short list” for treasury secretary before Tim Geithner got the job, met privately with Romney on Tuesday morning before a fund-raiser at Brasserie 8¹/2 hosted by Highbridge Capital—a JPMorgan-owned hedge fund.

Dimon, who was spotted “in a discreet one-on-one” discussion with Romney, cannot legally publicly endorse a candidate because of his position on the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. (But he still donated to Democratic candidates in 2008.)

While Dimon’s spokesman declined to give The New York Post a comment, a JP Morgan insider told them that Dimon has not attended an Obama fund-raiser and has not contributed to his campaign during this election cycle. What is even more interesting is that Dimon has met privately with many of the Republican presidential candidates.

“Dimon will continue to look bipartisan, then work behind the scenes to get a Republican elected,” says New York Magazine.

Political insiders are speculating that Dimon’s defection signals a massive rift between Obama and his former Wall Street supporters.

Calling them “fat Cats” in 2009 probably did not help.

“I don’t think the president of the United States should paint everyone with the same brush,” Dimon said in reference to the perceived hostility from the Obama administration.

One insider said, “There is not a person on Wall Street, with the exception of the genetic Democrats, who would get anywhere near supporting Obama. The hostility to the administration is huge.”

Romney has so far raised twice as much money as Obama from Wall Street, with at least 100 donors who backed the president in 2008 switching sides, reports Salon.

“It’s never fair to punish everybody regardless of their behavior,” Salon quotes Dimon of having said last year about Obama’s anti-Wall Street push. “There are good banks and bad banks just like there are good politicians and bad politicians, and I’m not going to sit here and accept that somehow it’s OK.”