MIAMI — When Jeff Greene, a k a the Meltdown Mogul, recently brought his Democratic campaign for the United States Senate to a poor Miami neighborhood rife with the kinds of subprime mortgages that he became a billionaire betting against, did he:
A) Arrive in a Cadillac Escalade S.U.V., before stumping for energy conservation;
B) Tell the crowd that he was “fed up and frustrated” with Washington while suggesting job-creation ideas previously proposed by Washington politicians;
C) Receive a raucous welcome as an outsider who could turn Florida around.
The answer? All of the above, of course.
Call it the Great Recession paradox. Even as voters express outrage at the insider culture of big bailouts and bonuses, their search for political saviors has led them to this: a growing crowd of über-rich candidates, comfortable in boardrooms and country clubs, spending a fortune to remake themselves into populist insurgents.
Full Story: More of the Rich Run as Populist Outsiders – NYTimes.com