2016′s grotesque beginning: How Jeb & Hillary are quietly competing to win Wall Street’s heart

(Salon) - In case you had any doubts, let them burden you no longer — the 2016 presidential election has begun. The signs are everywhere; from Gov. Scott Walker’s flip-flop on immigration to Jeb Bush’s establishing a super PAC to the media’s churning out storiesthat make Hillary Clinton look slippery if not outright corrupt. At this rate, ponderous and chin-scratching articles about the Democrats’ problems with the white working class should be just on the horizon.

Perhaps most tellingly of all, though, is this Tuesday report from Politico on the subterranean fight being waged between Bush and Clinton right now to earn the support of the most important people in American democracy. Not the voters, of course. And not the shadowy power-players who run the political parties from behind the scenes. These are the people who really count: the men and women of Wall Street. More specifically, those who work at Goldman Sachs.

Yes, according to Politico’s Ben White (who is exceedingly well-sourced on “the Street,” if nothing else), the front-runners for the respective parties are currently jockeying to win the hearts and minds of Goldman’s rank and file as well as its elites. Bush is planning to make yet another sojourn to New York next week, White reports, and has “a pair of events scheduled … with current and former Goldman executives.” Clinton, for her part, is not quite as far along on the shadow campaign trail as Bush. But she’s already made a few lucrative visits to Goldman since leaving the State Department, and no doubt will soon do so again. Read more.