Obama Begs Colorado To Elect His Ed Deform/Hedge Fundie Pal

The Colorado Senate primary between Michael Bennet (appointed to fill Ken Salazar's seat back in 2009) and underdog challenger Andrew Romanoff has gotten very interesting.

Bill Clinton is backing the challenger Romanoff.

Wall Street and the hedge fundies, the credit car industry and the education deform movement are backing corporate whore Bennet.

So is President Accountability.

Last night, President Accountability spoke to a "tele-town hall" in support of Bennet:

DENVER — President Barack Obama pleaded with Colorado Democrats on Tuesday to stick with U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet in a primary challenge, calling the appointed senator "the person that I want alongside me."

Bennet faces a primary challenge from Andrew Romanoff, a former state lawmaker who has blasted Bennet as being too cozy with corporate interests.

Obama, in a conference call with state Democrats who have yet to return mail-in ballots, disputed the criticism from Romanoff, saying Bennet "stood up again and again" to big corporations and was "one of the key people I needed" in the Senate to shepherd through a financial regulation recently signed into law.

"We've accomplished an incredible amount over the last 18 months, but we've got a lot more work to do, and Michael's the person that I was alongside me when we do it," said Obama.

The president also took exception to criticisms about Bennet's time with a Denver investment firm, the Anschutz Co., a job where Bennet made millions in part by restructuring movie theater companies. After leaving Anschutz, Bennet took a job with Denver's mayor, then was appointed superintendent of Denver public schools in 2005.

"He could've lived a comfortable life. Instead, he's devoted himself in every assignment he's undertaken to make a positive difference," Obama said.

Bennet stood up to big corporations?

Bennet sided with the banking industry on the cramdown mortgage issue, sided with credit card companies when progressive Dems tried to pass a 15% interest limit on what credit card companies could charge consumers, and sided with gas and coal industries in the fight over climate legislation.

In the financial reform legislation fight, Bennet stood with Wall Street and the banking industry to make sure new regulations would be toothless.

For his efforts, he raked in MAJOR Wall Street bucks.

That's NOT standing up TO big corporations, President Accountability.

That's standing up FOR big corporations.

Now you would think the allegedly "progressive" president would want a progressive ally in the Senate, not a corporate whore on the side of the gas, coal, credit card and hedge fund industries.

But you would be wrong.

Obama wants Bennet in the Senate because Bennet is, in Whitney Tilson's words

already leading a major school reform effort in the Senate...If ends up serving in the Senate for many years, I have no doubt that he will become one of the country's most powerful, energetic and influential advocates of genuine education reform.

He is President Obama's most reliable supporter of education deform/public education privatization in the Senate. He is beloved by the hedge fund criminal class. He is beloved by the coal, gas and oil industries. He is beloved by the credit card and banking industries.

And of course Michael Bennet made millions stealing money from state workers' and teachers' pensions.

That President Accountability has come in so forcefully in this primary on the side of Bennet over Romanoff tells you more about Obama than Bennet.

Corporate whores stick with corporate whores.

Time to send Bennet home in a primary next week.

With a little work, maybe we can send President Accountability home in 2012.