Last week, Leon Cooperman held a conference call with Omega Advisors’ investors, in which he expressed frustration at a lack of palatable presidential candidates who have what it takes to make this country great. So dire is the situation that Cooperman told them that he’d just have to run for president himself. Was he kidding? No, he was not.

Cooperman insists that he was not kidding.

Why then, if he was so dead serious, has he not announced his candidacy? He was planning on hanging up the phone and having his secretary send out an email to his entire address book, importance marked ‘high as fuck,’ to do just that, but his investors held him back.

Cooperman…was talked out of it by his spooked investors, who urged him to continue managing their money.

While he sadly won’t be making a play for the Oval Office, Cooperman did take the time to jot down a couple of his ideas that any candidates are free to crib, entitled “Presidential Plan.”

No. 1 on his list: Get all troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan. He then would give every returning soldier a free four-year education at a college or trade school of his or her choice. Number two: He would use some of the savings from leaving those two wars to create a Works Progress Administration, similar to the one established by Roosevelt during the Great Depression, to rebuild the nation’s infrastructure. Cooperman also wants to unleash the domestic energy industry to develop supplies and reserves, with the goal of ending dependency on foreign oil. In his fourth point, he asserts that government spending should be limited to a growth rate of at least 1 percent below the level of nominal GDP growth.

No. 5: Freeze entitlements and raise the Social Security retirement age to 70. However, he would exclude those who work at hard-labor jobs such as coal mining. In his sixth point, Cooperman would also levy a 10 percent surtax for three years on individuals earning more than $500,000 per year. No. 8: Tackle health care in a serious way. He offers no specific recommendations, though. Last, he would ban or curtail high-frequency trading and limit the trading of credit default swaps to those that own the underlying bonds. “The high-frequency traders are turning the best capital market in the world into a casino and scaring the public,” he told his clients. “This is not in the public interest.”

Leon Cooperman’s 9-Point Presidential Plan [Institutional Investor]

Comments (26)

  1. Posted by spectator | August 16, 2011 at 12:21 PM

    despite the fact that he is fat a$#ho*e, these proposals are reasonable

  2. Posted by guest | August 16, 2011 at 12:21 PM

    how is he an asshole?

  3. Posted by VonSloneker | August 16, 2011 at 12:22 PM

    Man, Ernest Borgnine looks fantastic (i.e. alive)

  4. Posted by Guest | August 16, 2011 at 12:30 PM

    Looks like the cab driver in Escape from New York.

  5. Posted by Bill Tetley | August 16, 2011 at 12:35 PM

    Yes, he is fat asshole. Just like I'm fat cobra.

  6. Posted by Guest | August 16, 2011 at 12:36 PM

    Step 7: ???
    Step 10: Profit!

  7. Posted by VonSloneker | August 16, 2011 at 12:48 PM

    Cooperman…was talked out of it by his spooked investors, who reminded him he's jewish and that we live in the United States

  8. Posted by Guest | August 16, 2011 at 12:56 PM

    I have a better, eleven step plan for prosperity… no ??? involved:

    1. Never let no one know how much dough you hold
    2. Never let them know your next move
    3. Never trust nobody
    4. Never get high on your own supply
    5. Never sell no crack where you rest at
    6. that god damn credit? dead it
    7. Keep your family and business completely separated
    8. Never keep no weight on you
    9. If you ain't getting bagged stay the fuck from police
    10. Consignment
    11. Profit

  9. Posted by merkin_capital | August 16, 2011 at 1:05 PM

    You gotta get in Obama's ass, Leon. You pull the asshole open, step into the asshole, close the door behind you. Then you take a spray can, right? Spray "Leon was here", "wash me" all that shit, fuck his whole asshole up. Get a snickers bar, paper, throw that on the floor, fuck his whole asshole up. Then you open up that asshole one more time, step out his ass, then leave that motherfucker wide open so he know you've been there.

    -the real Leon

  10. Posted by bartleby | August 16, 2011 at 1:12 PM

    If anything, it should be leaked by charlie rose first!

  11. Posted by ShortNaked | August 16, 2011 at 1:15 PM

    More like Pooperman!

  12. Posted by Guest | August 16, 2011 at 1:30 PM

    You know, maybe we're not seeing the presidency because one of us is a J-O-O.

  13. Posted by Serious Guy | August 16, 2011 at 1:47 PM

    Cooperman for President!

  14. Posted by VonSloneker | August 16, 2011 at 1:59 PM

    i.e. Ernest Borgnine. Totally agree, see above

  15. Posted by the 'not' joker | August 16, 2011 at 2:14 PM

    That 25 year stint at goldman will be convincing

  16. Posted by Absentee Ballot | August 16, 2011 at 2:26 PM

    I've never even heard of this schmuck, and know absolutely nothing about him …. so far he's the frontrunner for my vote.

  17. Posted by FKApmco | August 16, 2011 at 2:36 PM

    Ernie is 94 and still kicking VS.

  18. Posted by early_hominid | August 16, 2011 at 2:40 PM

    I'm on board unless hidden Point 10 is killing The Ben Bernank.

  19. Posted by VonSloneker | August 16, 2011 at 2:50 PM

    So he is, wow. I should have known he'd live forever…
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/14/ernest-b...

  20. Posted by Diddy | August 16, 2011 at 3:03 PM

    #8, I applaud you.

  21. Posted by ZeroHedge Weenies | August 16, 2011 at 4:39 PM

    we're not on board unles it IS!!

  22. Posted by The Producers | August 16, 2011 at 4:45 PM

    No way, he's much more Zero Mostel

  23. Posted by Back Office Ops | August 16, 2011 at 5:50 PM

    Busy editing Outlook to allow for the "High as Fuck" importance flag.

  24. Posted by PermaGuestII | August 16, 2011 at 10:09 PM

    Is he wearing a cardboard belt?

  25. Posted by PermaGuestII | August 16, 2011 at 10:14 PM

    Can we all please admit that anyone who claims he can solve every problem confronting the world's largest economy, third most populous country, and fifth-largest nation by area, simply by following "ten easy steps" as laid out in a 10-slide powerpoint presentation, is either a) delusional, b) a charlatan, or c) both??

  26. Posted by sdsd sdsd | August 17, 2011 at 1:29 PM

    F(.)(.)ck b*tches, get money!

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