Hedge Fund Managers Sour on Obama Heading into 2012

It appears U.S. hedge fund managers are doing their best to swing the White House and Senate back to the Republicans in 2012.

Despite giving generously to Democrats in the 2006 and 2008 elections, hedge funds have apparently had enough of President Obama's anti-Wall Street rhetoric and the Democrat-led push to reform their business.

According to a Wall Street Journal report , a number of prominent hedge fund managers who backed Obama's historic campaign with generous donations, are switching their support to the Republicans heading into 2012. And there's no doubt this has should-be frontrunner Mitt Romney feeling mighty good about his chances right about now.

According to the report, Daniel Loeb of Third Point LLC raised $200,000 for Obama in 2008. But since Obama took office, Loeb has given $468,000 to Republican candidates. The report also points out that Steven Cohen's SAC Capital Advisors and Kenneth Griffin's Citadel Investment Group are among a growing number of hedge funds opting to donate more heavily for Republican candidates.

From WSJ:

Managers of hedge funds - private investment partnerships that cater to institutions and wealthy people - are reacting to what some criticize as Mr. Obama's populist attacks on Wall Street, as well as to Democrat-led efforts to raise their tax bills. They had hoped to be protected from such a tax move by their relationships with prominent Democratic members of Congress. "Hedge funds bankrolled the Democrats in the 2006 and 2008 elections, and the very people they helped put in power turned around and screwed them," said Sam Geduldig, a former Republican congressional staffer who is a Wall Street lobbyist.