Crony capitalists

Eric Schmidt, Chairman of Google, has invested millions of his own money to create a company composed of the Obama election team's top techies.

The data analytics team, led by 30-year-old Dan Wagner, is credited with producing Obama’s surprising 5 million-vote margin of victory.

Schmidt thought enough of the team that when the campaign ended, he put up several million dollars to keep its core together as a new consulting firm, Civis Analytics, run by Wagner and staffed by two dozen of his former employees. They share ownership with Schmidt, its sole investor. The team will be working exclusively for Democrat candidates, as well as some corporations.