Bam recruits Corzine to woo back Wall $t.
July 5, 2011 | JOSH MARGOLIN
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President Obama is desperately putting his Wall Street stock in an unlikely old buddy.
The beleaguered president has recruited former Goldman Sachs head honcho Jon Corzine to shore up re-election funds from the banking industry, which is furious over Obama's financial regulations. Corzine, the former governor of New Jersey who was blasted out of office by Republican Chris Christie in 2009, has attended secret meetings with the president and has been working on Obama's 2012 campaign for months, The Post has learned. The Democrat, who now leads Manhattan-based brokerage MF Global, has been tasked with scraping up the very little banking-industry support Obama can still get.
And, like any good executive, Corzine is looking out for his own bottom line.
Success could resuscitate his political career with a top post -- such as treasury secretary or a key ambassadorship -- if there is a second Obama term.
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Corzine's name popped up on an attendance list for a controversial and secret White House sit-down with leaders of New York's financial sector late last month. He has also aggressively worked the phone lines and the cocktail-party circuit. And in the last few months, Corzine hosted a high-end fund-raiser at his Fifth Avenue home for Obama.
He even secretly organized a meet-and-greet at the Four Seasons for key finance-industry execs and Obama's new chief of staff, former banker Bill Daley.
"We need our donors back," one Obama campaign official said. "It's a tough fight." Many Wall Streeters are fuming over White House rhetoric painting them as "fat cats" who need to pay more taxes.
Top executives -- who contributed millions to Obama in 2008 -- have so far retaliated by closing their wallets to him.
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Benny, Straw, Vince, blacken, kc, anyone, anyone anyone? ? ? ? ?
