President Obama's Crony Capitalism

Leadership: Obama critics were quick to link U.S. loans for Brazil oil to benefits for his investor pal George Soros. There was no link in this case, but considering how this president operates, it's no wonder suspicions ran high.

The president's announcement that his administration would lend billions of dollars to develop Brazil's offshore oil reserves left many Americans flabbergasted.

After all, he had issued two drilling moratoriums in U.S. waters and then was declared in contempt of court for defying a federal judge who ordered the moratoriums reversed. Some wondered if the president wasn't intentionally acting against U.S. interests.

Others wanted to know if pleasing political campaign contributors was the idea. The name of Soros, the leftist billionaire, came up because he'd held stock in Petrobras, the Brazilian state oil company. But he dumped the shares six months ago.

Our disengaged president has said little as the Arab world is engulfed in revolution and has been absent as a huge budget battle plays out in Congress. But some lines can be drawn between his more inexplicable decisions and cronyism.

Indeed, many of Obama's decisions have been all about benefiting special interests and political friends - what's been called the Chicago Way. Whatever it's called, it's in the interests of the few at the expense of the whole. Some examples:

• Obama's firm support for nuclear energy in the wake of Japan's nuclear crisis. We don't fault his position, but it's worth noting that General Electric is a principal constructor of nuclear power plants, and its CEO is a close Obama ally.

Jeffrey Immelt was named to a White House jobs board, where he baffled many by declaring no core inflation in the U.S. and supported the administration's big spending. Was there an exchange of favors?

• Obama's praise for Solyndra Inc. as the first recipient of $535 million of stimulus cash in 2009 to hire 1,000 workers for "green jobs." The company had never shown a profit, but that was no obstacle to getting the cash, and in the end the Fremont, Calif.-based solar panel manufacturer never came through.

However, Solyndra's majority owner, billionaire George Kaiser, was a top fundraiser for the 2008 Obama-Biden campaign.

• During the U.S. auto bailout of 2008 and 2009, Obama's ally, the United Auto Workers, saw its unsecured claims win out over those of secured bondholders, an unprecedented alteration of bankruptcy law that violated bondholders' legal rights. The move was augmented by a politically motivated investigation against rival Toyota, with Transport Secretary Ray LaHood telling Americans not to buy Toyotas.

• The Health and Human Services Department gave 1,040 Section 2711 waivers on onerous ObamaCare regulations, which enabled labor unions and businesses to avoid the burdensome costs of the new law.

"Naturally, a disproportionate share of those receiving waivers are unions, some of Obama's biggest political allies," wrote IBD's David Hogberg in a blog post Monday.

The list goes on. If there's any pattern here, it's that of a president who makes a clear decision only if it's to help someone who can help him - or who already has.

That's not leadership. That's cronyism, and history is a harsh judge to such leaders.