If anyone knows business, it’s Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz. That’s exactly what Glenn Beck‘s The Blaze said last year. Howard Schultz, the long-time leader of coffee giant Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX), now says he is voting for President Obama, after spending much of last year attacking Obamacare so much that he became a center point of Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor‘s press releases. Schultz this year added that an ability to lead in a bipartisan fashion was a prerequisite for his support. And today, he gave that support to President Obama, citing his performance during Hurricane Sandy.
Mitt Romney has been running on the (false) claim that he will create 12 million jobs and make the economy shine bright. For Howard Schultz, the man whom the right says “knows business,” to endorse Barack Obama, is a huge slam to Romney and his entire platform, fake as it may be.
Schultz’s Starbucks is one of the few American companies that offer health care to even part time employees. Schultz, who has also endorsed has said that Starbucks spends more on employee health care than on coffee beans.
In March of last year, Glenn Beck’s The Blaze reported:
If anyone knows business, it’s Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz.
On Tuesday, Schultz weighed in on the ongoing debate over Democrats’ landmark health care overhaul law on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. Though he says he initially supported the bill, the Starbucks exec cautioned that the new regulations will put limiting burdens on America’s small businesses and changes need to be made to avoid harming the nation’s economy.
Congressman Cantor jumped on that bandwagon, Cantor issued a press release titled: “STARBUCKS CEO: OBAMACARE HAS A NEGATIVE IMPACT ON SMALL BUSINESS” (because right wingers often have to use ALL CAPS.)
Hot Air  and many other right wing media sites jumped on the bandwagon last year.
“In August 2011, Schultz called for a halt on campaign donations until both parties found common ground on the country’s long-term fiscal issues,” Business Insider just reported as well.
“I am a product of that American Dream,” Schultz wrote at The Huffington Post in June of this year, just prior to Independence Day. “As a kid who grew up in public housing, went on to get an education at a state university and build a business, I am grateful for what this country has made possible for me. In turn, at Starbucks, we have always tried our best to honor our responsibility to the communities we serve.”
Let’s tell our government leaders to put partisanship aside and to speak truthfully about the challenges we face. Let’s ask our business leaders to create more job opportunities for the American economy. And as citizens, let’s all get more involved. Please, don’t be a bystander. Understand that we have a shared responsibility in solving our nation’s problems. We can’t wait for Washington.
And today, just days before the election, Schultz announced to CNBC that Starbucks earnings were better than expected, that he is raising shareholders’ quarterly dividends by a whopping 24%, and he’s voting for Barack Obama.
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If anyone knows business, it’s Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz.
Any questions?
Image by Sillygwailo