Cramer got what he was looking for from President Obama during Monday’s “Investing in America” town hall on CNBC.
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“The market did not go down,” Cramer said following the event, with the Dow up 107 points in the trading session. “Many stocks have gone up that I was looking for earlier.”
Those stocks included JPMorgan Chase , Bank of America , Visa , Office Depot and Staples , in addition to a few retail names. Cramer, in his post-town hall remarks, added Home Depot to the list of companies to watch.
The president kept his message pro-growth without attacking Wall Street, Cramer said, though he had opportunity do so on a number of occasions. Not the least of which was a point raised about a comment from billionaire and Blackstone Group CEO Stephen Schwarzwan, who likened Obama’s tax policies to Adolf Hitler invading Poland in 1939.
But the president never took the bait, Cramer said, and as a result, can consider his performance a success.
“It was benign,” Cramer said. “And you know what? Benign’s a win.”
While some CNBC guests said they wanted to see more of an olive branch offered to Wall Street and big business, specifically the banks, Cramer said “the room” wasn’t the place for it. The town hall did have some high-net-worth investors, such as Anthony Scaramucci, but the other participants were a mix of small-business owners, struggling parents and recent graduates.
“In then end, the people don’t like the bankers,” Cramer said. “So it’s very difficult for him in that room to say, ‘You know what? I’ve been too tough on the banks.’ These people want to hear blood. In the end, that’s America” right now.
Still, simply the fact that Obama didn't outright attack the banks or the HMOs—two opponents in his fight for financial reform and health-care legislation—is all the olive branch that Cramer needed. He saw that as proof that the president is “no longer on the offensive.” There was no anger in the president's comments, no bite in his remarks, and that makes this market buyable.
“I like this Obama,” Cramer said. “This Obama is saying, ‘Hey, listen, man, the war is over.’”
When this story published, Cramer's charitable trust owned Bank of America, Home Depot and JPMorgan Chase.
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