The Cheerful Billionaire Who's Out to Get Obama

Thomas Peterffy has spent millions on an ad bashing the president

Thomas Peterffy in front of an 18th century earth goddess tapestry in his home office in Greenwich, Conn.Photograph by Andrew Hetherington for Bloomberg Businessweek

Provide news feedback or report an error

Confidential tip?

Send a tip to our reporters

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

By Joshua Green

October 26, 2012 at 3:21 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

BusinessWeek Cover Image (12_44, portrait_2x)

This article is part of the October 29, 2012 issue of businessweek.

(Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story ran online.)

It hardly counts as news anymore when some put-upon billionaire starts fulminating about Barack Obama. The likes of the Koch brothers, Stephen Schwarzman, and Leon Cooperman have already called the president all sorts of terrible things, Schwarzman even comparing his tax policies to the Nazis’ (he later apologized). What’s startling, then, about a television ad suggesting Obama is a socialist whose policies stifle entrepreneurship is that it’s not angry at all—it’s actually sort of a tear-jerker.