“Previous antitrust concerns are truly antiquated in light of today’s marketplace realities”

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/02/13/industry-shifts-may-aid-comcast-in-takeover-bid/

Industry Shifts May Aid Comcast in Takeover Bid
By EDWARD WYATT


David Cohen is a Comcast executive and its chief lobbyist. He has hosted a fund-raiser for President Obama at his home.

“Previous antitrust concerns are truly antiquated in light of today’s marketplace realities,” David L. Cohen, a Comcast executive and its chief lobbyist, said on Thursday.

Many in Washington say that Mr. Cohen, a veteran of Philadelphia politics, is Comcast’s secret weapon in trying to persuade government regulators to sign off on the deal.

Mr. Cohen has close ties to President Obama, perhaps even closer than Comcast’s chief executive, Mr. Roberts, who has golfed with the president on Martha’s Vineyard.

A major Democratic fund-raiser, Mr. Cohen and his wife hosted Mr. Obama at their Philadelphia home in 2011, raising $1.2 million at an event where the president called the couple “great friends.”