Carol E. Lee and Jonathan Weisman have a story chronicling the gripes of various donors with President Obama's reelection effort. This seems like one of the less sympathetic but more avoidable complaints:
The overtures to donors have not always gone smoothly.
At a recent gathering of major donors here, former National Economic Council Director Larry Summers, who headlined a breakout session on the economy, got into an exchange with a donor that resulted in the man walking out of the session, according to people at the event.
The donor told Mr. Summers that he'd had trouble getting approved for a loan, according to people present. After the man repeatedly returned to his personal troubles, Mr. Summers said that no one at the conference—where attendees were asked to raise $350,000—was experiencing the kinds of financial difficulties faced by ordinary Americans. The man got frustrated and left the room, people at the event said.
I guess I understand the thinking behind having Larry Summers in this role: He's a Clinton-era moderate with credibility among the financial industry. I'm generally a Summers fan (his Washington Post op-ed today is good) and in this particular question he was probably correct. But putting him in a position to lecture to, and debate with, people you're trying to raise money from is an epically terrible idea:
If any audio of the event emerges, it will be interesting to see if the term "jackwagon" was used.