Obama Fundraising on The Huffington Post

Obama Gives Donors Special Access: Washington Times

2009-10-28T13:29:14Z

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has rewarded top Democratic donors with perks ranging from holiday visits to the White House to policy briefings, carrying on a practice of past presidents despite his promise to change how Washington works, a report published Wednesday shows.

At least 39 Democratic donors and fundraisers attended a White House reception on St. Patrick's Day, and festivities held at the White House for Cinco de Mayo and Independence Day were financed at least in part by the Democratic National Committee, The Washington Times reported. Democratic National Committee documents it obtained showed the party promising top fundraisers who pledged to donate or raise certain amounts access to senior White House officials.

Bill Thompson Gets Shout-Out From President Obama

2009-10-21T09:11:54Z

Democratic mayoral hopeful William Thompson finally got some love from President Obama - but he had to share it with two other citywide candidates.

Obama Aims To Close Fundraising Gap With GOP

2009-05-16T11:53:07Z

President Barack Obama is taking up a new role for the Democratic Party: Fund-Raiser-in-Chief.

This Sunday, following his commencement speech at Notre Dame, he headlines a $15,000-a-couple event in Indianapolis. Then comes a May 27 Beverly Hills gala -- at $30,400 a couple. That dinner, looking to draw a big entertainment-industry guest list, is expected to gross at least $3 million.

Obama Will Fundraise And Campaign For Specter If Asked: Gibbs

2009-04-28T16:50:33Z

If there were any lingering doubts about how Arlen Specter would be welcomed in the Democratic Party, or if the party would welcome a primary challenge to the now-former Republican, they were put to rest during the White House Daily briefing on Tuesday afternoon.

Asked if the president would aid the Pennsylvania Republican-turned-Democrat's primary efforts, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs replied: "If the president is asked to raise money for Senator Specter, he will happily do it. If the president is asked to campaign for Senator Specter, he will be happy to do that as well."

Later in the briefing, Gibbs was pressed whether the president would consider supporting another Democrat in the Pennsylvania primary should one choose to run. He responded: "Full support means full support."

Freshman Rep. Joe Sestak, a Pennsylvania Democrat and retired Navy officer, told MSNBC on Tuesday that he was still considering a potential run at Specter's Senate seat.

Also on Tuesday afternoon, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee blasted out a fundraising email headlined, "Arlen Specter Switches Parties," and declaring it "a great day for all of us who want to help bring real, lasting change to this country."

"The Democrats welcomed Sen. Arlen Specter into our party today," the message read. "This one's a game-changer. Specter's move immediately improves the prospects of President Obama's bold change agenda."

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Ruby Reid: Obama Supporters Engage In 50 State Post-Election Advocacy

2009-04-01T11:15:18Z

SAN FRANCISCO--Two weeks ago, Democratic Senator Evan Bayh (IN-D) announced the formation of 15 "blue dogs" (technically, the "Moderate Dems Working Group") in the Senate who, he said, would hold President Barack Obama's feet to the fire on the budget. In response, Obama supporters setup a sidewalk phone bank outside a swanky, high-dollar fundraiser in San Francisco on Sunday afternoon, calling the constituents of Senate blue dogs hobnobbing inside.

Although the President's plan to lift the country out of the current economic crisis has broad support, blue dogs have been reluctant to get behind Obama's proposed 2010 budget.

In order to generate political capital, Organizing For America (OFA) recently began to activate Obama's vast campaign volunteer network to increase awareness and support for the President's economic and budgetary agenda in all 50 states. Post-election legislative advocacy and activism by volunteers organized during an election campaign is unprecedented, especially on a national scale.

On Sunday, Phone bankers on the sidewalk called hundreds of voters in the Senators' home states, engaging their local constituents directly. Others held signs like, "Honk for Obama" or "Support Obama's Budget." Cars and buses honked and passengers waved support and put thumbs in the air as they passed by.

Susan Pfeifer, in black sweatshirt, surrounded by fellow OFA volunteers.

Volunteers also handed flyers to everyone entering the fundraiser venue, and they encouraged attendees to engage the Senators in conversation about the budget during the event. They also asked attendees to make their support for the Senators contingent upon each Senator's support for Obama's budget.

Attendees of the high-dollar dinner included Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ, DSCC Chair), Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK), Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and Sen. John Tester (D-MT).

When the limousine carrying Menendez arrived, volunteer José Torres caught his eye and waved him over. Torres explained the reason for the activity on the sidewalk to a receptive Menendez, who voted for Obama's budget in committee. Menendez had Torres introduce him to the phone bank volunteers and thanked them for their efforts. When the callers told him that they were currently calling Menendez's own constituents in New Jersey, he replied enthusiastically, "That's great!"

(D-IA) Senator Tom Harkin signing the pledge handed to him by Kenya Wheeler

Tara Schubert, Volunteer Coordinator for San Francisco OFA, said the sidewalk phone bank was significant for her team because it was the first post-election activity in which they contacted voters in other states,

I live in a blue state, in a blue city. But I can still have an effect on national issues through these contacts with voters in other states.

Schubert said that one New Jersey voter told her,

I'm doing what you're doing, making calls to Congress and encouraging others to make calls to support President Obama.

Kenya Wheeler marveled at how engaged the voters seemed on the other end of the phone, noting that several had already contacted their Senators to ask them to support Obama's 2010 budget. During one conversation in which Wheeler was waiting for a Delaware constituent to retrieve a pen to write down the phone numbers of her senators, Wheeler looked up to see Senator Carper of Delaware thanking phone bankers for their work. After shaking Carper's hand, Wheeler asked if he would sign the pledge. He declined, saying guilefully, "Barack and I are buddies." and hurried on to greet another volunteer.

Volunteers on the sidewalk making calls

Harkin also shook hands and thanked the volunteers and even allowed several volunteers to snap photos of each other with him. When he made his way over to Wheeler, Wheeler shook Harkin's hand, remarking that Obama got his start in Iowa. He made a point to thank Harkin for Iowa's historic role in Obama's election then asked Harkin if he would sign the pledge to support Obama's budget. Without hesitation, Harkin exclaimed, "Of course!" He diligently filled out every blank and box in the form and then signed it Your Senator, Tom Harkin.

Volunteer Susan Pheifer reflected on the past successes of Obama campaign volunteers in San Francisco, noting,

While this might not have been our highest volume phone bank, it certainly was one of the most satisfying.

Event organizers said the goal of the sidewalk phone bank was to demonstrate in no uncertain terms that the message of change the country endorsed on November 4 was not just a political slogan. Wheeler asserted,

Just as the tactics of political engagement have been changed, so have the expectations of the American people. No longer will we simply elect a leader, sit back and expect him (or her) to create the change we need. Instead, a new understanding is unveiling that speaks truth to the words of Ghandi, "You must be the change that you wish to seek in the world."

Obama To Headline First Fundraiser As President, Faces "Donor Fatigue"

2009-03-16T09:06:55Z

President Barack Obama will headline the first fundraiser of his presidency this month, appealing to donors large and small even as the economy struggles through the worst recession in generations.

Jim Jaffe: Obama's Lesson on Campaign Finance

2009-01-22T17:27:20Z

Goo goos who worry about the way money corrupts our politics might want to use part of the Obama honeymoon to revise and refine their arguments. What's the lesson to be learned when the candidate who rejects public financing -- designed to level the playing field and is thus able to far outspend the competition -- wins?

No one seems terribly worried about that at the moment and I'm not either.

Some claim that Obama has broken the system and thus has a responsibility to quickly fix it, but I'm not among them. Why should he see a system that worked this well for him as broken? Why should the voters? And what type of fix would result in a fairer outcome?

I find it interesting that Republicans now licking their wounds and planning a comeback have not fixed on this issue or claimed that they were denied a victory that should have been theirs by the avalanche of political money that flowed to the Obama campaign. That's an encouraging sign.

The most basic flaw of the public finance argument has always been the assumption that the link between money and popularity began with the former. In their fantasies, Americans would elect a clown or Klansman president if there was enough money behind the candidacy. But history suggests otherwise.

In fact, the candidate with the most money is often pushed out of the race earlier, as former Sen. Phil Gramm can attest.

There's a stronger argument to be made that public popularity brings in the money, which is apparently what happened in the 2004 race. And what's wrong with that? If you don't initially have enough friends who care enough to donate their time or money to help elect you, it is extremely unlikely that you'll later have enough friends to vote you into office.

That's why it is a mistake to think that money can elect a candidate who defies his constituents on issues they care about ranging from foreign policy, to immigration or abortion. The search for incumbents who are out of step with their constituents is a challenging one, partly because they are so quickly retired (and partly because of the way redistricting is done, which often creates more problems than political contributions).

Money can have a worrisome impact on new or technically arcane issues where the public has little awareness or reason to care. The telecommunications reform debate, where there was little public interest detectable, was fueled it. In the weeks ahead, we'll probably see it surface as Congress debates which sectors of the financial services communities are most worthy (yet another battlefield in the long-running war between banks and credit unions, for instance).

In areas where the policy choice appears to be a coin toss and legislators hear nothing from their constituents (or nothing beyond the Astroturf campaigns that crudely imitate grassroots efforts), there's a tendency to go with the guys who seem most helpful.

But that's an arena far from presidential campaigns and one unlikely to be impacted by any rewrite of our campaign finance laws.

Daniel Lubetzky: The Obama Money Machine

2009-01-19T17:32:20Z

I was very proud to support Obama's Presidential campaign from the primaries all the way to his historic victory.

And like most of the nation and the world, I have high hopes for his leadership and administration.

It is from this vantage point that I am so enormously turned off by all the emails I keep getting from the Obama "campaign" asking me for more money! What are they going to do with this money?

I am sure I am not the only one getting these emails. So many Americans are struggling to make ends meet during the recession and the Obama campaign is still asking them for more money?! After having exponentially surpassed all fund-raising records?

Isn't there some financial-demagogic addiction going on here? I am sure it's not Obama himself, but whoever ran the fundraising racket must still be getting some percentage points and is so inebriated with how much the campaign raised that he or she may want to stop. Did they not get the memo? The election is over. Their guy won! It's time to move on.

This aggressive fundraiser is relentless and resorts to the cheapest steps to continue. You want to attend the inauguration? Send us $500. You want to attend a ball? Send us $1,000. You want to enter a drawing to see if you get tickets? Send us $25. And buy all your commemorative materials today from us. An Obama hat for $15, a sweatshirt for $35 or a commemorative Obama plate made in China. Here is one example of one of a couple dozen emails I have received over the last month.

This is turning Obama the historical transformative figure into Obama the QVC late-night cheesy infomercial money-machine.

There is too much at stake. Our world desperately needs real leadership. Hope someone in the Obama team realizes it is high time to be a little dignified.

Christopher Brauchli: The Wealthy Share Experiences with the Unemployed

2008-12-19T00:04:21Z

Men have been swindled by other men on many occasions. The autumn of 1929 was, perhaps, the first occasion when men succeeded on a large scale in swindling themselves.
-- John Kenneth Galbraith, The Great Crash

Put in a positive light, so as not to cast a pall over the joys of the Christmas season, Bernard L. Madoff should be viewed as someone who has expanded the consequences of one of the great new traditions of the holiday season to a group that never expected to share in it. The tradition to which I refer is the tradition of corporations large and small alike informing their employees that in the new year they will have more time at home with the family. That news is always accompanied by the news that there will no longer be a paycheck, thus, in most cases, reducing the quality, if not the quantity, of time spent at home with the family.

The timing of the announcement is nothing more than a sad coincidence that results from the conscientious (and usually high paid) executives' year-end examination of the performance of the company. They cannot be blamed for the fact that Christmas and the year-end coincide. In addition to the sad news imparted by employers of ongoing companies to employees, in 2008 many companies were forced into bankruptcy and retired and former employees learned that pension plan payments and health insurance benefits might be reduced or eliminated because of the company's misfortune. (People with IRAs and other retirement accounts have seen the value of those accounts reduced by close to one-half thus permitting them to at least partly share in the joys of the season.)

Unaffected by such misfortunes, until recently, were the highly paid executives of these companies. Similarly unaffected were the wealthy who relied on investments, rather than pay checks, to maintain their standards of living. Thanks to Mr. Madoff that has all changed. Whereas the beneficiaries of the imposition of cost cutting measures that have cost them their jobs now have more leisure time, the beneficiaries of Mr. Madoff's business practices, though having no less leisure time, will find its quality greatly diminished.

Thousands of extremely wealthy individuals have now learned that their wealth has been taken from them by a man who led them to believe for years, if not decades, that their fortunes were safe if entrusted to him. In that respect they were like the long-term employees of corporations who believed that nothing was more important to the executives of their companies than their future welfare and comfort.

For more than 30 years, Mr. Madoff was the darling of Wall Street and thousands of people who invested with him. In some cases would-be investors joined Tony country clubs in order to gain access to Mr. Madoff. Many big names in the financial world invested with Mr. Madoff. Mr. Madoff seemed to guarantee a modest but consistent return that enabled his clients to live in the style to which they not only were accustomed but entitled, thanks to their accidents of birth, in some cases, and their business acumen (except when it came to investing) in others.

Mr. Madoff is not the only financial wizard whose efforts have leveled the living field between employees and their more affluent counterparts. On December 14 the New York Times reported that Marc S. Dreier, the founder of the 250-lawyer Dreier L.L.P. Park Avenue law firm, had bilked clients and his law firm of more than $380 million. Among other things, he represented the Solow real estate firm for many years and began drafting and selling fictitious promissory notes that had apparently been issued by the firm. Like Mr. Madoff, Mr. Dreier was a one-man swindler. None of the 250 lawyers who worked with him were aware of his activities. He had no equity partners and there was no executive committee to review the overall operation of the firm. In addition being a one-man operation, there were other similarities between Mr. Dreier and Mr. Madoff.

Each of them owned three expensive homes and each of them owned a yacht. Mr. Dreier's was docked in Manhattan whereas Mr. Madoff's was kept in the Bahamas. Both men were generous to a fault using their money to support a variety of charitable causes although it was not, of course, their money.

Thanks to Messrs. Madoff and Dreier, many people who have lost all or significant parts of their savings will now relate more easily to the touching and sad picture on the front page of the New York Times of former Chrysler employee, Cindy Spisak, being hugged by Douglas Yandura after she was laid off by Chrysler. They now know exactly how she and millions like her feel because that is how many of them feel. Maybe Doug Yandura will come by and give them all hugs. Messrs. Dreier and Madoff won't. They'll be confined.

Rachel Sklar: Buy Me A Drink? I'll Take A Charitini

2008-12-08T17:00:54Z

Hello! I'm Rachel Sklar, former HuffPo Media Editor. This is my first time posting since I bade farewell last month, and it 's nice to be back. It's also nice to get a break from the Media page (so much orange!) and hang out here on the pretty purple Living Page for its "The Giving Life" column.

Here's my story: Not only am I celebrating my return to HuffPo today, it's also my birthday. I'm 36, which can sound sort of old when you're used to being a sprightly young 35. Needless to say, I was not looking forward to the birthday, and planned to let it pass quietly, with little more than a few grumbles and perhaps one or two self-pitying moans.

But these are strange and harsh times of late, and complaining about turning a year older seemed rather hollow compared to the actual problems people are facing these days. The economy's tanking. Belts are tightening. Banks are dissolving. To put it bluntly, things suck.

Meanwhile, the people who have it worst are those for whom it has always sucked - the people who rely on charities and the kindness of others to improve their lives even just a bit. Charitable giving has taken a massive hit from this economic crisis - never mind no more Lehman Brothers for massive corporate giving, don't forget that Lehman Brothers employees gave, too. So did Citicorp's. Ditto GM. When times are tough for the givers, it's the givees who feel it the most.

Here's where the drinking comes in. Tonight, I've planned a birthday party with a twist: Instead of plying me with drinks 'til I'm wobbly, I've invited friends and colleagues to donate the equivalent sum to some of my favorite charities: Foundation Rwanda, Habitat for Humanity, DonorsChoose, and the Bob Woodruff Family Foundation. All are worthy causes in their own way, benefiting survivors of devastating genocide, rebuilding homes in Katrina-ravaged New Orleans, funding educational projects in needy classrooms, and caring for returning soldiers, wounded in the line of duty.

I know. What did I have to complain about, again?

Nothing. Quite the opposite - today I've got this one day when everyone is supposed to be nice to me and buy me things. What excuse to hit up all my friends for drinks! Except without the bloating, slurred speech or awkward lampshade table-dance. Sounds like a win-win for everyone, really.

Hence the name - Charitini. It's my hope that it can be a concoction for giving that can add up to real results. The idea was inspired by three things: (1) My friend Bill Bragin, who turned his birthday party into an Obama fundraiser in September, and raised a whopping $43 thousand bucks; (2) An amazing new startup called EchoAge.com, which plans children's birthday parties to collect gift money, spent half on one meaningful gift and half to the charity of the kid's choice; and - yes - (3) the Obama campaign, which proved again and again that micro-giving is an idea that works. Can we tap into those online habits to gin up support for people who need it? Yes, we can. Even if there's no actual gin involved.

So - that's it. For now. Today Charitini launched in a test-run, to see how much an idea that matches great intentions with easy opportunities for giving can catch on. We do have plans to create an infrastructure for taking this service wide - there are 365 days in the year, after all. I've been working with Richard Waldvogel of Giveness and Rex Sorgatz of Fimoculous on how to take the idea wide, and so far, the response has been great. For now, though, we're going through the fine folks at Network for Good who are hosting my birthday wish list. So please, pour generously! The bar's always open.

Let me know what you think of the site (also purple!) in the comments below - I hope you like it! Here's to raising a Charitini with you all very soon.

Monroe Price: Sarah Palin: the All-in-One Reality TV Show

2008-12-07T19:26:06Z

It's hard to have yet another Sarah Palin epiphany, but that's what happened as I was drifting happily through a conference called "Reality Worlds," organized at the Annenberg School for Communication by Marwan Kraidy and Katherine Sender.

Scholars devoted to the genre were generating all sorts of theories about these relatively inexpensive and ubiquitous program efforts. But what occurred to me (and undoubtedly has occurred to others) is how Palin's trajectory through the political campaign approximates the rhythm of makeover and other reality TV shows.

Palin is one-person reiteration of everything from "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" (early round dismissal?) up through and including "Survivor."

And then now, there's the story of Palin and her hair stylists, including Amy Strozzi, who received over $40,000 and was awarded an Emmy for her work on the show "So You Think You Can Dance." Shades of "Making the Cut," "Million Dollar $alon,"and "Top Hair."

Palin wasn't even mentioned in the Annenberg talks, but her arc during the campaign could have been a subtext for all the scholarly presentations.

Laura Grindstaff, for example, a professor at the University of California, hit a kind of proverbial Palin nail on the head when she spoke about how these shows seek out a center of American life, and engage in what she called the "production of ordinariness" through reality television.

Grindstaff was talking particularly about an MTV series called "Sorority Life" which chronicles the life of pledges as they move towards acceptance and initiation. I didn't ask, but it seemed to me that one could call Palin, whatever else she was, a kind of initiate, a rushee who among other things had to go through a process of hazing (did she make it? You be the judge.).

At the Philadelphia event, I talked with a very helpful Penn graduate student, Rebecca Pardo, who, like a lot of modern young scholars, has a slight and admirable obsession with "reality" filtered through this art form. She loves the work of Nicholas Couldry (a professor at Goldsmiths in London) and sees Palin as the embodiment of what Couldry has called the Myth of the Mediated Center.

Pardo also put me on to Justin Wolfe, who blogs about "The Hills," a reality show about life in 90210, hedonistic and pragmatic California. Wolfe has written , without, blogwise, using capital letters, about Palin and the process of candidate selection in reality shows:

"it's funny because the way sarah palin was chosen is, in many ways, just like the way heidi montag was chosen for the hills. if you strip all the fame away from heidi montag, if we pretend that she's just a normal girl what's special about her, what sets her apart? nothing, really, she's just normal. kind of pretty, sort of ambitious, but mostly normal. and, without the magic ticket she was given into the world of celebrity, into the show, that's how she would've probably stayed, a normal girl from a small town in colorado. If course, that's the Sarah Palin narrative, too: plucked from the relative obscurity of the alaskan wilderness into the national spotlight, with the barest of real experience or qualifications but with scads of those particular qualities that resonate with the american public: personality, relatability, normality.

"

As on some reality shows (take "Project Runway" for example), Palin was subjected to ingenious and daunting tests that would raise public anticipation about the outcome--triumph or failure. Would she make it to the next round? When Sarah met Katie Couric, it could have been one of these "tests" revealed to the contestant ("for your next challenge, you must go one on one with a noted anchor-person who will ask you questions you may have no way of answering"). Palin's life was a series of created melodramas with accompanying anxieties and the imminent apprehension of failure.

No reality show is complete without the backroom drama, as "Dancing With the Stars," illustrates through the elaborate process of trying to turn someone quite ordinary (in some respects) into the surprisingly gifted (the Pygmalion moment, the alchemy of transformation). Can you really make this person rhumba? Can he or she be trained to be a cook or a business executive (or an expert on foreign affairs)? We were all on pins and needles to see if this process would work with Sarah.

My mind drifted to one of my favorite shows I never watched in entirety: "Ladette to Lady," the story of a group of relatively inexperienced young women,who are given an old-fashioned five-week course in learning how to behave like a real lady. They are sent to Eggleston Hall, an English finishing school.

There was a lot of Ladette to Lady in the Palin tale, though Palin was not a Ladette, by any stretch. And the Republican National Committee wasn't Eggleston.

You could say that this wasn't a real reality show because it didn't have the panel of judges requisite in some versions. But I think of that curious crew of indifferent panelists Wolf Blitzer oddly and unrealistically named "the best political team on television." They could just as well have had cards and numbers; and Sarah (holding Todd's hand tightly) might have been seen on camera -- like frightened ice-skaters -- waiting for the results in an isolated room.

Zala Volcic, a Slovenian now living in Brisbane spoke, at the Annenberg conference (part of Professor Barbie Zelizer's Annenberg Scholars Program in Culture and Communications Program) about That's Me, a Big Brother style Balkan reality TV show which mixed roommates from all over the former Yugoslavia. The show was designed to "negotiate the struggles among religious, ethnic and national groups that still plague the region." That's Me was supposed to smooth conflict, and did not necessarily succeed. This was reality show as social engineering. Think Palin: The Message, energizing the base.

There was much talk at the Annenberg workshop about "parenting" as a persistent theme in reality shows. Mark Anthony Neal, the Duke scholar of hip-hop, gave an exuberant talk on Snoop Dog and his program called "Fatherhood." There and on so many other shows, the fragile nature of parenting--and the possibility of failing and the complexities of succeeding--were tracked.

Of course, the Sarah candidacy--right out of the box--was about mothering in American society--mothering and having a career, mothering and the extraordinary decisions about a child with Downs Syndrome, parenting and an unmarried daughter who discovers pregnancy--it goes on and on.

Much of reality television scholarship is about voting habits of the committed viewers. Stephen Coleman (Leeds), the guru of Big Brother voting, has concluded that there's not a gulf between those who vote in "real" elections and those who vote in "reality" elections. Aswin Punathambekar of the University of Michigan probably had a slightly different view. He spoke, movingly, about the temporarily intense political activity and rampant mobile phone voting in North-East India for the Indian Idol candidacy of Amit Paul.

And then, of course, there were the clothes. Palin and her relationship to clothing is Reality TV writ large. It's the epitome of the "makeover" story. One can think of the RNC operatives as channeling "What Not to Wear", the British show with Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine, even including those choice bits of surveillance where Trinny and Susannah view videos of the poor subject.

It's a small and maybe obvious epiphany--The Palin campaign as all reality shows rolled into one. The Annenberg conference luxuriated in phrases that resonated with the campaign like "cult of the commonplace." But mostly, it was interesting to see, through the Reality TV Show lens, what the Republicans -- McCain and Palin's handlers or the audiences reacting to her so enthusiastically -- were actually doing, thinking and reflecting this summer and fall.

Obama Thanks Illinois Finance Team

2008-12-04T22:34:32Z

CHICAGO — President-elect Barack Obama thanked his Illinois finance committee on Thursday night for helping him win the election, telling them it was not the end of their work but the beginning.

Obama made the remarks at a private club in Chicago, where roughly 100 fundraisers had joined him and his wife, Michelle.

Obama's Final Fundraising Number: Nearly $750 Million

2008-12-04T22:13:36Z

WASHINGTON — Barack Obama's presidential campaign raised $104 million in the weeks around Election Day, a grand finale to a successful bid that shattered fundraising records.

Overall, Obama raised nearly $750 million during his odyssey to the presidency, and his spending in the eight weeks before the election vastly outpaced that of his Republican rival John McCain, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission. The reporting period covered Oct. 15-Nov. 24.

Obama: The Billion Dollar Man

2008-12-02T17:38:59Z

Nearly two years ago, Barack Obama muscled his way into the top tier of presidential contenders by breaking fundraising records.

When the 2008 campaign books are closed, the Democratic president-elect will shatter another record by coming close to, or capturing, the title of the first billion-dollar candidate.

That's roughly how much the Obama finance team will have raised for his campaign, convention, transition and Jan. 20 Inauguration events.

Study: Obama's Small Donor Base Image A Myth

2008-11-29T10:25:21Z

Everybody knows how President-elect Barack Obama's amazing campaign money machine was dominated by several million regular folks sending in hard-earned amounts under $200, a real sign of his broadbased grassroots support.

Except, it turns out, that's not really true.

Obama Raised Over $500 Million Online During Campaign

2008-11-20T23:25:13Z

Barack Obama raised half a billion dollars online in his 21-month campaign for the White House, dramatically ushering in a new digital era in presidential fundraising.

In an exclusive interview with The Post, members of the vaunted Triple O, Obama's online operation, broke down the numbers: 3 million donors made a total of 6.5 million donations online adding up to more than $500 million. Of those 6.5 million donations, 6 million were in increments of $100 or less. The average online donation was $80, and the average Obama donor gave more than once.

GOP's Orrin Hatch Supports Eric Holder, But...

2008-11-20T17:31:44Z

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), in supporting Eric Holder's nomination to be attorney general today, noted supporting words from Senate Republicans, especially from the Senate Judiciary Committee's top Republican, Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah. "I respect the man and I intend to support him," Hatch told reporters Wednesday, praising Holder's reputation and experience.

But no one should get too carried away. We recall Hatch's effusive praise of President Clinton's nominee for attorney general, Zoe Baird, in mid-January 1993, after it was revealed she had hired a Peruvian couple illegally in this country to be her nanny and chauffeur and didn't pay their Social Security taxes.

Obama Has $500 Million To Spend On Campaign

2008-10-20T09:36:37Z

Barack Obama's record-breaking September fundraising puts him on track to have as much as a half-billion dollars for the general election, or almost double the resources of Republican opponent John McCain.

Obama, the first major-party nominee to shun public funding for the general election, reported taking in $150 million in September, the most ever raised by a presidential candidate in one month and more than twice as much as his previous record of $66 million in August.

He entered September with $95 million in the bank. Combined with the $50 million raised by the Democratic National Committee, which can be spent on his behalf, Obama brought in another $200 million last month. Political observers expect him and the party to at least match those figures in October, giving Obama around $500 million for the two-month campaign ending with the Nov. 4 election.

Obama Raises $150 Million In September

2008-10-19T08:34:48Z

WASHINGTON — Barack Obama raised more than $150 million in September, a stunning and unprecedented eruption of political giving that has given him a wide spending advantage over rival John McCain.

The Democrat's campaign released the figure Sunday, one day before it must file a detailed report of its monthly finances with the Federal Election Commission.

Obama Aides: Record Cash Raised In September, Polls Show McCain Ads Backfired

2008-10-12T21:25:43Z

With the presidential campaign approaching its final stretch, Barack Obama finds himself in an enviable position.

One official close to the campaign said that September's fundraising haul set a new record, surpassing the $66 million Obama raised in August. Another aide, asked about the campaign's take, would only describe it: "big."

Moreover, the assault that John McCain has launched against Obama's character - including repeated criticisms of the Illinois Democrat's association to former Weather Underground member Bill Ayers - has largely backfired. Obama sources shared internal campaign polling figures that show a sharp fall in positive feelings for the Republican ticket. Following the most recent spat of negative ads, they say, McCain's unfavorable rating has gone over 50 percent, notably higher than anything detected in recent public polling.

Gov. Sarah Palin is faring just as poorly if not worse. In New Hampshire, an official with knowledge of internal polling says the Alaska Republican's favorable rating has nosedived to 36 percent, with 56 percent viewing her unfavorably.

Even within Republican circles it seems there is a growing sentiment that McCain's recent strategy has had a blow-back effect. On Sunday, the Weekly Standard's William Kristol called the negative tactics "stupid."

"The main thing to say about these negative ads -- which, I don't think, almost none of them has been across the line -- they haven't worked," he said on Fox News Sunday. "Obama's favorable rating is as high as it's been in three months. It's actually gone up in the last month. So it's a stupid campaign."

Conservative writers George Will and Paul Gigot, as well as more than a handful of Republican officials, expressed equal amounts of doubt or disparagement with how the Arizona Republican has handled his campaign in recent days.

And yet, the McCain campaign seems content to double down on its recent course of action. On Sunday night it was announced that the Republican National Committee would make a new push - in the form of a web video - to raise the Ayer's issue.

At this point, Obama might welcome the move. His campaign's data suggests that the remaining undecideds are those voters who tend to be non-political -- a group that does not respond well to negative advertisements. As such, much of what Chicago headquarters plans to do going forward will echo the economic message it has pushed in recent weeks.

There will, however, be one new ripple. On Monday, Obama's communication's shop is expected to go on the offense on issues of voter protection after a week in which Republicans cried foul about registration efforts in various states and painted the community organizing group ACORN as a criminal enterprise.

Obama aides will attack Republicans over efforts to disenfranchise voters in several states, and announce a voter protection campaign involving hundreds of volunteer lawyers around the country.

Susan Braudy: I Did the Research: Billy Ayers Is an Irrelevant Show-Off

2008-10-10T14:27:30Z

Bill Ayers is a show-off and a publicity hound -- and yes a criminal, but while living his complicated sociopath life, he's associated with many do-gooders like Senator Barack Obama.

For my book, Family Circle, the Boudins and the Aristocracy of the Left, I pored over FBI documents, turgid, pompous weatherman news releases, and every book ever written by and about Ayers' nefarious, insane, fun-loving and yes criminal group called the weather underground.

Masters of publicity, the only reason they stopped bombings of such as the Capitol of the United States was that the FBI stopped publicly attributing bombings to them.

The FBI finally recognized the show-off needs of the silly sociopaths and told reporters only that they (the FBI) were investigating fringe groups who might have pulled the latest ickyy and dangerous stunt -- stunts that the weather group pretended or insanely tricked themselves into believing were meant to frighten Americans into being better people. (There's a photograph in my book of Ayers stomping on the American flag. God, what a moronic move.)

That said, along the way, Bill Ayers associated with many many do-gooders as part of his cover or because of his insane and murderously conflicted desire to be a star and be "better than."

These do-gooders must not be his victims.

Why am I not surprised that Ayers, master of publicity is once more making front page headlines. I'm betting he's thrilled.

Let's forget him.

Except as an example of what never to do, we must concentrate on electing a decent man to be our president. Senator Barack Obama is a decent man. I only hope he can hold onto his decency as president of the US; I think he's strong enough. I do.

Lea Lane: OJ: You're Finally Juiced

2008-10-08T12:29:53Z

I was in a hotel room in Quebec, Canada breaking up with the man I had been living with (on and off) for five years, when that white Bronco came on the TV at the foot of our bed. We stopped breaking up and stayed together through most of the trial, bonded by our sense of shock and inevitable injustice. When Simpson was acquitted we broke up, disgusted with just about everything.

Living in Miami I'd hear tales about the hobbling double-murderer hanging out in the coffee shops in Kendall, and little old ladies putting down their bagels and pinching him on the cheek. My sister once ran into him at Gulfstream race track and gushed, "Oh you're him," and he liked it of course. She gets star struck, but that was a low. I like to think that I would have spit on him or at least given him the finger.

And now, a lucky thirteen years to the day, justice has peeked behind her blindfold and given us a Palinesque wink: the double murderer is headed for the slammer, maybe for life.

I may not understand the psychological underpinnings of why this ultimate sociopath wrote a book describing how he might have murdered Nicole Simpson and Ronald Goldman, or why he engineered a two-bit robbery with a weapon and a bunch of shady witnesses. I'm just happy he's finally getting his, in a story that seems improbably wrapped up like a 1940s film noir.

The problem is: now that the Juice is toast who will be hunting diligently and ceaselessly on the south Florida golf courses for the "real murderer"?

Obama Forced To Return Suspicious Donations

2008-10-05T12:48:22Z

The Obama campaign has shattered all fund-raising records, raking in $458 million so far, with about half the bounty coming from donors who contribute $200 or less. Aides say that's an illustration of a truly democratic campaign. To critics, though, it can be an invitation for fraud and illegal foreign cash because donors giving individual sums of $200 or less don't have to be publicly reported. Consider the cases of Obama donors "Doodad Pro" of Nunda, N.Y., who gave $17,130, and "Good Will" of Austin, Texas, who gave more than $11,000--both in excess of the $2,300-per-person federal limit. In two recent letters to the Obama campaign, Federal Election Commission auditors flagged those (and other) donors and informed the campaign that the sums had to be returned. Neither name had ever been publicly reported because both individuals made online donations in $10 and $25 increments. "Good Will" listed his employer as "Loving" and his occupation as "You," while supplying as his address 1015 Norwood Park Boulevard, which is shared by the Austin nonprofit Goodwill Industries. Suzanha Burmeister, marketing director for Goodwill, said the group had "no clue" who the donor was. She added, however, that the group had received five puzzling thank-you letters from the Obama campaign this year, prompting it to send the campaign an e-mail in September pointing out the apparent fraudulent use of its name.

Lily Koppel: The Great Schlep: Jewish Grandkids Flying to Florida to Talk Their Bubbes into Voting for Obama

2008-09-26T19:54:02Z

Twenty-four hours ago, "The Great Schlep" was launched to inspire an exodus of hundreds of Jewish grandkids to travel south on Columbus Day weekend, descending on the Fort Lauderdale area to visit their grandparents. There, they will not only be floating in pools and having desserts forced upon them, but organizing political "salons" in condos overlooking the golf course. The Great Schlep is an initiative of JewsVote.org, the web platform of the Jewish Council for Education and Research, a new political action committee that supports Obama (http://thegreatschlep.com/site/index.html).

The comedian Sarah Silverman, who often performs her act as a Jewish-American princess, is the spokesperson for The Great Schlep. She asks on a video, which has been widely circulated on the Internet: "If you knew that visiting your grandparents would change the world, would you do it?" She continues, her brown eyes wide, "If Barack Obama doesn't become the next president of the United States, I'm going to blame the Jews."

As the group's website states, "The Great Schlep aims to have Jewish grandchildren visit their grandparents in Florida, educate them about Obama, and therefore swing the crucial Florida vote in his favor. Don't have grandparents in Florida? Not Jewish? No problem! You can still become a schlepper and make change happen in 2008, simply by talking to your relatives about Obama."

Sitting on a couch next to her Nana in a pink jogging suit, Silverman coaches young "schleppers" on how to swing their elder relatives to vote for Obama. For those uneasy about Obama's background, she suggests, "Explain to them that we're all the same inside." Silverman weighs the striking similarities between African Americans and older, Floridian Jews, pointing out that both sport nylon tracksuits, enjoy cruising in their Caddys, and rocking their "bling and jewelry and stuff."

Silverman explains that although Barack Hussein Obama's name may sound Muslim, he is not -- and Jews should, of all people, understand bias. In earnest she offers, "Barack is a Hebrew word. It means lightning, I'd much rather have a president whose name means lightning than a president named John whose name means toilet." Potty talk is another favorite topic of conversation in Florida, after shrimp cocktail.

Plus, as Sarah says, Barack Obama's foreign policy is much more stabilizing than John McCain's and much better for Israel. He wants to protect Social Security. "His brisket is beyond," she says, "beyond." She points out that he's circumcised and suggests that grandkids maintain their position, and if necessary, threaten not to visit for the rest of the year if Grandpappy votes for McCain.

"The most important political office is that of private citizen," is the quote from Justice Louis D. Brandeis appearing at the bottom of each e-mail sent out by Great Schlep organizer Ari Wallach, who is 33. He and co-founder Mik Moore, 35, came up with the idea over breakfast, in a heated debate, while sitting in the garden of Wallach's brownstone apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Wallach said that The Great Schlep has "activated the grandchildren," thousands of young people across the country and on college campuses, to "infiltrate" their grandparents' Florida scene -- including, but not limited to, the beauty parlor, Hadassah groups, Mah Jong and bingo games.

As outlined on JewsVote.org, "In presidential elections, when choosing between a more progressive candidate and a more conservative candidate, Jews overwhelmingly choose the more progressive candidate. Between 1924 and 2004, Jews have given their vote to the more progressive candidates at an average rate of 76 percent. In fact, none of the more conservative candidates have ever mustered more than 40 percent of the Jewish vote, while more than half received less than 20 percent.

"Given this history, why is Barack Obama hovering at 60 percent of the Jewish vote, according to three separate polls? Is this all the product of a highly effective rumor campaign, spread through Jewish networks often by well-meaning individuals concerned that the information they received was true? Or is there something more?"

In an interview with the Washington Post, Moore was described as saying that he was alarmed by the large percentage of undecided Jewish voters, since a majority consider themselves Democrats. The article also sited aggregated results from the Gallup Daily tracking poll that found those Jewish voters who have decided on a candidate break heavily for Obama, 66 percent to 26 percent for John McCain.

Older Floridian Jews make up about 5 percent of the voters in a swing state with 27 Electoral College votes. When a cartoon of the crucial state of Florida appears on screen behind Sarah, it looks like a flaccid penis.

Great Schlep has a Facebook group that provides instructions on what to do and say to "schlep" to campaign for Obama in Florida. The group is also helping to coordinate efforts in Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. "Over the next few days and weeks we will be providing you everything you need to hold your own vis-a-vis sometime-republican Uncle Haim at the Rosh Hashonah table, Grandpa Jesse who isn't sure about this Maybe-a-Muslim Obama guy and even your un-sure mom...yes, the one who still wears her Mondale t-shirt when she gardens..." the Facebook profile states.

It continues, "And if you have the inclination and 'ability' -- join us as we Schlep to Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and beyond to talk, bingo and bagel for Obama over Columbus Day weekend. See your intended Schlep city below to the right? Sign up and meet others Schlepping. From those Event pages, coordinate on rides, flights, couch-surfing, shabbat dinners, bridge tournaments etc."

I, for one, think it can work after spending a lot of time in Florida with my honorary Jewish grandmother Florence, the 93-year-old subject of my book, The Red Leather Diary: Reclaiming a Life Through the Pages of a Lost Journal, about my discovery of Florence's diary, kept in New York in the 1930s, which I recovered from a dumpster, then tracked down its owner with the help of a private investigator. "Thank you for getting me out of the ghetto of old age," said Florence at the book party, wearing her bling.

In the book's forward, Florence wrote, "At ninety, having survived a car crash and E. coli, I was living what can only be called a bland life. Mobility was low -- no golf, no tennis, no long walks -- but curiosity about people and politics was high. And there were such activities as playing scales on the piano, playing bridge, reading, and agonizing with friends over America's current quagmire."

That was Florence and her friends in Florida under Bush -- truly, at times not so different from hipsters playing shuffleboard except that they've had a few hips replaced.

Now McBush? Florence is getting to work. A feminist since before she knew the word (she was born in 1915), she thinks the Republican Party's pick of Sarah Palin as vice presidential candidate an insult to all women. She is constantly forwarding anti-Palin emails to her friends, in case they need to be persuaded not to write in Hilary Clinton, like the ladies in the women's assertiveness group Florence started leading in her condo complex in the 1970s (they talked about politics, relationships, sexism, etc.), who still love Hil in her pantsuits and all her scrappy glory.

At 93, Florence is ready to get out and help. Florence emailed me in response to The Great Schlep, which she will be emailing to friends for their "political education":

Very amusing plea for Obama - it's good that I don't know any grandparent or lesser relative who should be persuaded - for anyone else, what are grandparents for?
Hope this causes lots of people to rethink their McCain weakness.
Love, F

The Great Schlep from The Great Schlep on Vimeo.

Lily Koppel, Florence Wolfson, and The Red Leather Diary, hanging above them is a portrait of Florence by her best friend, Eda Mann, the mother of Erica Jong.
Read more: Florence Wolfson, Barack Obama 2008, Lily Koppel Ny Times, Red Leather Diary Lily Koppel, John McCain, Obama Fundraising, Barack Obama, The Great Schlep, Florida Electoral Vote, Sarah Silverman, Obama Elderly Vote, Florida Swing State, Jewish Voters, Style News

Alison Teal: Berkeley

2008-09-26T18:11:02Z
"Truth. It will set you free. But first it will piss you off." Bumper strip in Berkeley.

We've been in Oakland and Berkeley for a series of fundraisers this past week. For fundraising, this is low hanging fruit country. The average zip code in America gives $41,000 total to all political candidates. The three zip codes that gave most of the money to an event with Gary Hart last weekend give an average of over $1.5 million each -- about 30 to 1 for Obama. So while it was pleasant, it wasn't totally a surprise when 300 people showed up to hear Senator Hart and gave over $125,000. Not bad for a Sunday garden party. It looks like a debate party with Alice Waters and a cast of gustatory all stars will net another $150,000 tonight.

This all happened after the economy went to hell. You know that's happened in Berkeley when the proprietors of high-end restaurants say their weekday business collapsed on precisely the day of the first big fall in the market and has not recovered. That is what we were told by Christopher Lee, owner of Eccolo and former Chez Panisse chef. On the other hand, Sam was told today that an Obama volunteer is walking around a legal conference in Silicon Valley asking for $5000 checks from participants -- and getting them. It's harvest time.

Here are some campaign updates that you aren't hearing on Letterman, Jon Stewart, and the Colbert Report. In Colorado, there are 190 full-time staff members in 32 offices around the state. Additionally, as of this week, there are 225 full-time volunteers from out of state. Last weekend, there was a competition with the Virginia Obama campaign to see which state could do more canvassing. In Colorado, some 4,000 volunteers knocked on over 107,000 doors. That is an all time record for the state! But the field team in Virginia, headed by the brilliant Matt Robinson, did even better with hundreds of additional staff and volunteers imported from DC and Maryland.

I have a great feeling about tonight, but not just because McCain and Palin are imploding and not because people are sick of what my friend Verne Newton refers to as McCain's coquettish southern belle half-grin and fluttering eyes. No, I have a great feeling because our daughter Teal got rid of all my scary bad feelings by destroying them in the Crested Butte Grump Festival. That's right. Once a year for the past twenty, the good people of Crested Butte, Colorado, make a huge cloth and metal grump, stuff it full of papers on which their greatest complaints from the past year are written and then set it aflame while screaming "Burn the grump!". It's working for me . . . sort of.

Another bumper strip seen in Berkeley: "I can't believe I'm still protesting the same old crap."

Send me your thoughts on the debate tonight, particularly your funny ones. alisonteal@tealdesigns.com

Read more: Obama Fundraising, Presidential Debates, Political Bumper Stickers, Berkeley, Barack Obama, Virginia, Political Fundrasing, Voter Fundraising, Oakland, Swing States, Voter Activism, Colorado, Colbert Report, The Colbert Report, Politics News