Longtime Democrat and Obama Contributor Allegedly Defects to Romney Camp

“I don’t think the president of the United States should paint everyone with the same brush.” JP Morgan CEO and once financial supporter of President Obama has allegedly defected to the Mitt Romney camp. Dimon, a lifelong Democrat who was rumored to be on Obama’s short list for treasury secretary before he settled on Tim Geithner, 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 publicly endorse a candidate because he sits on the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. However, he donated to Democratic candidates in 2008 and privately supported Obama. While Dimon’s spokesperson declined to comment, a JP Morgan insider tells us that Dimon has not attended an Obama fund-raiser and has not contributed to his campaign during this election cycle. And Dimon has met privately with many of the Republican presidential candidates. Political insiders are buzzing that a defection would signal further Wall Street hostility toward Obama, who famously called them “fat cat” bankers in 2009. Dimon responded, “I don’t think the president of the United States should paint everyone with the same brush.” 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. Dimon will continue to look bipartisan, then work behind the scenes to get a Republican elected.” There were few big Wall Street names openly linked to Obama’s fund-raisers in New York. And we’re told ticket sales for Obama’s Friday event with Warren Buffett have been slower than expected, with staffers calling and e-mailing supporters to shift tickets at up to $35,800. Obama’s team insist they are expecting a “packed house,” but didn’t get back to us about Dimon last night. The New York Post "Dimon will continue to look bipartisan, then work behind the scenes to get a Republican elected," said one "insider" quoted by the Post. New York Magazine 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. Dimon puts an influential, deep-pocketed face to that shift, and is clearly still smarting from the president's put-downs and snubs. "It’s never fair to punish everybody regardless of their behavior," Dimon said last year of 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." With a warm smile and a soothing back rub — not to mention a business pedigree of his own — Romney has positioned himself for the rebound. Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, is not supposed to endorse a presidential candidate, because he sits on the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, but he is out partying and attending fundraisers with former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. (Of course, Dimon also probably shouldn't have accepted billions of dollars from the Fed while sitting on the New York Fed board either, but that happened.) Dimon is a Democrat and former BFF of President Barack Obama, but one day Obama said "fat cat bankers" and everyone on Wall Street threw a tremendous tantrum. The president has gone on to lightly criticize the financial industry and endorse a plan to slightly raise income taxes on very wealthy people, which has reportedly driven scores of Democratic backers from the finance industry into the open arms of the GOP. Here's someone explaining the switch (this is an anonymous source talking to the New York Post, which has a vested interest in presenting the Democratic Party and Barack Obama as avowed enemies of capitalism and free enterprise, but I assume this is a fairly accurate explanation of Dimon's thinking): 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. Dimon will continue to look bipartisan, then work behind the scenes to get a Republican elected.” Salon