Obama Goes All-in With 'Occupy Wall Street'

Barack Obama, US president, offered more support for protesters against the global financial system after a weekend of demonstrations in cities around the world, but called on them not to “demonise” those who worked on Wall Street.

On Sunday, Mr Obama honoured Martin Luther King at a dedication to a new memorial on National Mall in Washington. Referring to protests that have spread from Wall Street to London, Rome and elsewhere, Mr Obama said: “Dr King would want us to challenge the excesses of Wall Street without demonising those who work there.” Mr Obama had previously said the protests “express the frustration” of ordinary Americans with the financial sector. Read more at FT.com.

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President Barack Obama will seek to tap into public anger at Wall Street excess to turn up the heat on congressional Republicans as he embarks on a campaign-style bus tour Monday to rally support for his stalled jobs package.

Hitting the road for the next three days, Obama heads to North Carolina and Virginia, both vital to his 2012 re-election chances, with an increasingly populist approach aimed at winning passage of at least parts of his $447 billion jobs plan.

His visits to two pivotal Southern states come against the backdrop of protests against corporate greed and economic inequality that began weeks ago in New York and have spread to other cities, inspiring global "Day of Rage" demonstrations against the world financial system over the weekend.

Obama -- whose poll numbers have fallen over his handling of the stagnant economy and high unemployment -- has voiced sympathy with the grievances of the "Occupy Wall Street" movement but has done so cautiously, not least because of his own economic team's ties to the financial industry.

"The president will continue to acknowledge the frustration that he himself shares about the need for Washington to do more to support our economic recovery and to ensure that the interest of the 99 percent of Americans is well-represented," spokesman Josh Earnest said when asked whether Obama would offer a message for Wall Street protesters on his trip south. Read more at Newsmax.com.

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White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley slammed Wall Street Monday for its “disconnect” with the economic distress happening in America.

Daley, himself a former regional chairman of JPMorgan Chase, criticized Wall Street for its outsize influence in the nation’s affairs in an interview with the New York Times.

“A lot of people in the financial sector have done quite well, I being one of them. And the influence that the financial sector has on our economy is way beyond what it ever had. And there’s a bad side to that,” he said. Read more at Politico.com.