The Bill Clinton bargain: How corporations invest in US politicians to enhance their image and boost their stocks

[Geee]

UK Telegraph:

American elections can do wonders for your stock profile. Politicians running for office carry with them an indefinable glamour that rubs off on anyone they associate with. Being seen with a hot candidate suggests that you enjoy access to power, or an eye for a sure bet. The result is a culture of familiarity between corporations and politics that is far from healthy.

Lately, Republican presidential contenders have been doing the rounds of trade fairs. Sarah Palin spoke with the Long Island Association of businesspeople in February and some CEOs paid as much as $9,500 to be photographed sitting next to the ex-governor. Yet the subject of business hardly came up: they wanted to talk about gun control and Palin’s ambitions. Some of the donors badmouthed their guest. ‘She’s kind of like a novelty,’ said Robert Quarte, a partner at AVZ Accounting. ‘We really don’t know where she stands on substance.’

So why did these people pay good money to be seen with someone they wrote off as a flake? Aside from networking with a future president, the answer might be found in Donald Trump’s much-hyped presidential bid
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Trump rebranded himself in the early 2000s with his TV show The Apprentice, launching a series of garish hotels, casinos and clothing lines that reeked of bad-taste bling. Then came the Credit Crunch, and the failure of his entertainment division and sinking Apprentice ratings made a re-launch necessary. Now his presidential explorations have (surprise, surprise) coincided with a bump in Apprentice ratings and a series of new high-profile real estate acquisitions. The Trump profile has never looked better.