Four Months After ‘Bitter’-gate, Obama Returns to San Fran for Huge Money Haul*
EmailSAN FRANCISCO –- Four months after his infamous remarks about small town Pennsylvanians made at a San Francisco fundraiser, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., returned to the City by the Bay to dive for gold.
And he found it. According to John Roos, an Obama fundraiser, Sunday night’s events brought $7.8 million into the coffers of the Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
The Fairmont Hotel was location of the treasure for this visit, with three stops on the docket.
Obama’s first stop was a conference room with roughly 60 South Asian donors, each paying $2,300 apiece to his campaign.
There he was introduced by eBay cofounder Steve Westly, and Silicon Valley investor Kamil Hasan –- a former supporter of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., national co-chair of the Asian Americans for Obama finance committee and an at-large member of the Democratic National Committee.
Obama told the crowd about his Pakistani roommate at Occidental College joining with several Indian-American friends.
"Indians and Pakistanis had come together under one room to cause havoc in the university," joked the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. "I won’t go into details of some of our activities."
He added, more seriously, that he has "an enormous personal affection for the peoples of South Asia. … The future of America is built on the strength of immigrant communities who are going to come here and invest and learn and teach and create new businesses and new technologies and create linkages with these enormous emerging markets all around the world."
Obama warned the crowd that the race from here until Election Day "is going to be difficult. Change is always tough. And electing me is change. It means that people are going to hesitate a little bit. Ba-rack O-bama. They’re still getting past that name. But it’s a testament to the American spirit that I’m even standing before you as the Democratic nominee."
After that East Asian appetizer, Obama was on to the main course in the main ballroom, where approximately 350 "VIPs" had paid $28,500 per couple to the joint Obama campaign-Democratic National Committee Victory Fund.
Westly told the San Francisco Chronicle that tonight’s event would be "a historic fundraiser, one of the largest in San Francisco ever — if not California. We’re very proud of what Sen. Obama’s doing tonight. This month, we’ve gotten 65,000 new donors … and now we’re going to take it to a whole new level."
Introduced by another former Clinton backer — Thomas M. Steyer, founder of Farillon Capital Management -– Obama told the crowd that he knew the attacks from the campaign of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., were tough, but unlike previous nominees, he would respond.
"Democrats because we’ve burned in the last few elections, get nervous and skittish right around this time," Obama said. "They say, ‘Oh no, here the Republicans come — they’re so mean and they’re going to be doing all these things. Obama is a funny name and who knows what they’re going to do.’
"Keep your stress to a minimum," Obama tried to reassure the crowd.
At a third event — one where he was introduced by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who called him “a leader that God has blessed us with at this time" — Obama reassured the crowd of roughly 1,300, “I will win. Don’t worry about that."
“Now, you want to win. And saying it doesn’t make it so,” Obama said. “It would be nice to think that after eight years of economic disaster, after eight years of bungled foreign policy, of being engaged in a war that should never have been authorized and should never have been waged, that cost us a trillion dollars and thousands of lives, that people would say, ‘Let’s toss the bums out. Toss the bums out, we’re starting from scratch, we’re starting over. This is not working.’
“So I understand why a lot of folks are saying, ‘This should just happen. Why are we having to run all these television commercials? Why do we have to raise all this money? Just read the papers. These are the knuckleheads who have been in charge. Throw ‘em out.’
"But American politics aren’t that simple," he said. “The fact of the matter is, at a certain point, when government has not been serving the people for this long, people get cynical. They tune out. And they start saying to themselves, a plague on both your houses. They are willing to consume negative information more frequently than positive information, for good reason. They’ve seen how promises haven’t been kept.”
Obama warned the crowd that his opponents have "got a whole machinery that they’re cranking out. They’ve got a book about me, that just kind of sprung full bore out of this guy’s head. John McCain, all he wants to do is talk about me. They know they can’t win on the issues. So what they’ll do is they’ll try to scare people. ‘He’s risky. He’s risky. We’re not sure.’
Obama said he would push back.
"Not only do you have a candidate who doesn’t take any guff. Not only do you have a candidate who will hit back swiftly and forcefully and truthfully," he said, "but you’ve also got American people who are rising up all over the country and saying, ‘Enough is enough.’”
His remarks were better received than the ones he gave a few months ago out here.
In April, Obama told the crowd at a fundraiser here that people in small town Pennsylvania, have "gone through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. So it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, and they cling to guns, or religion, or antipathy toward people who aren’t like them, or anti-immigrant sentiment, or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."
But speaking of curious comments made in Frisco, last month, standing in this same hotel, McCain predicted, "I will compete, and I will win in the state of California."
A July 22 poll of 1,401 California voters by the Public Policy Institute of California had Obama beating McCain here 50 percent to 35 percent.
- jpt
* This post has been updated.
Santorum: Money Will Not Defeat Obama, Ideas Will 
Rick Santorum's Full Speech at CPAC 2012
Bitter-gate, seems like eons ago. Wasn’t it just this past Saturday night that Obama was clinging to his little claims of religiosity? Also, he’s from Chicago, so he’s pretty much surrounded by guns. So why can’t he close the deal with those bitter little small-town folks, clinging to their guns and religion, he has so much in common.
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Obama — can’t ever quite close the deal!
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Posted by: WestCoastMessenger | August 17, 2008, 11:36 pm 11:36 pm
As a Califonian, I (like most of us) would like San Francisco to go away.
This is the center of the socialist world, were liberals continue inbreed to keep their belief’s alive.
Trust me, go there and you will feel like your in Europe.
Posted by: Scott | August 17, 2008, 11:37 pm 11:37 pm
I wonder if those ‘regular folks’ paying $28,000 to get closer to Barack expect something in return.
Posted by: Rick | August 17, 2008, 11:40 pm 11:40 pm
so by your own account then jayhawk i guess the clintons and mccain are not for the working class either….
wierd
anyway, mccain thanks you for the vote, but unlike you many of us americans want to rebuild americas image as the greatest nation in the world one that is for peace and human rights… instead of one that invades countries for democracy and oil, or terrorism…
bush also thanks you for voting for him twice, but america no longer needs to stomp on our constitution and our peoples rights, we want change
sorry if that makes you think that the rest of us are “kool aid” drinkers. Some of us believe in the future and the future of our country, if that makes you have to conjure up images of james town or other cults i can only assume its because you are afraid and or want to continue the path america is currently on.
Good luck with that
Posted by: bhrandon | August 17, 2008, 11:43 pm 11:43 pm
As a proud San Franciscan I would like people to stop using my city as a scapegoat.
It is the beauty of this country we can have a San Francisco and a Colorado Springs.
This is why I am proud of being an American.
Posted by: Benjamin | August 17, 2008, 11:43 pm 11:43 pm
oh and west coast messenger, instead of just taking what he said out of context perhaps just look at what hte actual quote was…
if you do that you realize your republican talking point is silly and basically a lie
but i dont expect someone like you to keep with facts, no that would be too much to ask
Posted by: bhrandon | August 17, 2008, 11:44 pm 11:44 pm
As a proud Californian, I am ashamed of San Francisco. As for Colorado Springs, I’ll leave that up to those in Colorado….
Posted by: Scott | August 17, 2008, 11:48 pm 11:48 pm
Judging from the antipathy displayed in the reader comments on this blog, let’s give credit to Obama’s association with the leftists for his understanding of a useful psychological principle. Though the judicious application of this principle for understanding the motivations of other individuals and groups requires experience which his observers seem to be willing to credit him with.
Posted by: Julian | August 18, 2008, 12:11 am 12:11 am
sorry, correction:
… which his observers seem to be unwilling to credit him with.
Posted by: Julian | August 18, 2008, 12:12 am 12:12 am
One thing these comment boards show us is that Obama was pretty much dead on with his “bitter” comment. He’s going to have to learn to stop telling the truth like that.
Posted by: jock59801 | August 18, 2008, 12:15 am 12:15 am
I’ll play along. As a proud Coloradan I’m ashamed of Colorado Springs.
Posted by: Jeremy | August 18, 2008, 12:33 am 12:33 am
We tend to stereotype those we don’t understand, but come on, this is old “gotcha” news at 4 months.
Posted by: kat | August 18, 2008, 12:36 am 12:36 am
Scott writes:
As a Califonian, I (like most of us) would like San Francisco to go away…
Trust me, go there and you will feel like your in Europe.
************************************************
So would you like Europe to “go away,” also?
How about Asia, Africa, and South America?
Posted by: Danny | August 18, 2008, 12:45 am 12:45 am
BHRandon,
Mine is not a “Republican” talking point. Fact is I am a Democrat. I am not taking anything out of context. Obama said it. You’re trying to spin it into erasure. The press continues to repeat it. Where do you think the term Bitter-Gate came from? It was coined by the press. Shame on Obama for speaking in a deferential manner about people he does not understand, to this day.
Posted by: WestCoastMessenger | August 18, 2008, 1:25 am 1:25 am
Poor Debra! The reason why you still do not know on what principles Obama stands and what experiences he had is because you refuse to open your eyes, ears, and mind when in comes to getting to know the man. If you want to understand what makes up his moral fibre, research about how is mother raised him and his sister up. Even the life led by his mother says a lot about Barack Obama’s view of how life should be for everybody.
Posted by: susie | August 18, 2008, 1:29 am 1:29 am
” Buford Gooch” Fact is Fact.
Vote for whom you like!
Posted by: Elitist | August 18, 2008, 1:34 am 1:34 am
susie, sorry honey, I’m not interested in Obama’s radical Atheist mother who abandoned Obama, basically by marrying the Indonesian step dad and taking Barry there to raise/educated him for 5 years….then send him back to granny. I heard Obama and his mother didn’t speak the last two years of her life and she died of ovarian cancer ALONE, IN A HOSPITAL ROOM. I do feel sorry for Barack Hussein Obama, as his father had 4 wives and 8 kids and he was a drunk who loved fast cars and that’s how he died at 46. BO is s total psych 101 case who because of abandonment issues wants to be loved by everyone…plus he has a mommy comples, HENCE MICHELLE! See suise, I have done my homework!
Posted by: Debra | August 18, 2008, 1:40 am 1:40 am
Debra,
Maybe you remember the scandal about Hillary’s Chinese fundraiser, Norman Hsu? He was charged with creating a $60 million Ponzi scheme and also for using “straw donors” to contribute to Hillary and other Democrats.
There were several articles in the papers around that time about Chinese mob bosses threatening workers to contribute to the campaign.
Obviously, these Asian donors paying $2,300 a head want something in return from Obama. Same story.
Posted by: Donoke9-10 | August 18, 2008, 1:40 am 1:40 am
typo, complex
sorry
Posted by: Debra | August 18, 2008, 1:41 am 1:41 am
“I wonder if those ‘regular folks’ paying $28,000 to get closer to Barack expect something in return. ”
Posted by: Rick | Aug 17, 2008 11:40:11 PM
____________________
and should they actually BRING businesses to this country will they send the actual WORK back to their own homelands?
And… what D O they want in return?
Posted by: hmmmmm | August 18, 2008, 1:42 am 1:42 am
“I wonder if those ‘regular folks’ paying $28,000 to get closer to Barack expect something in return. ”
Posted by: Rick | Aug 17, 2008 11:40:11 PM
YES, They want their country to Prosper …
President Obama ’09
Posted by: HC4BO | August 18, 2008, 2:30 am 2:30 am
When Gov Mike Dukakis ran, the Republicans dumped on his wife because she took legal drugs. I hope Obama nails Cindy McCain for STEALING ILLEGAL DRUGS!
Posted by: joel | August 18, 2008, 3:08 am 3:08 am
San Fransisco is home to many gays who want a persons support like Obama who honors God with his lips but his heart is far removed from GOD
Posted by: chipper | August 18, 2008, 3:09 am 3:09 am
In John Bush McCain’s book he talked about committing ADULTRY. Where is his church where HIS Jesus says it is OK to bang another woman while his own wife was in a hospital bed?
Great republican family values!!!
Posted by: joel | August 18, 2008, 3:13 am 3:13 am
I would vote for John McCain in the coffin before i cast a vote for the lead by DIVISION Obama
Posted by: hammer time | August 18, 2008, 3:46 am 3:46 am
Yeah I remember Obama’s nasty little comment about rural people and his knock on the Clinton administration, no wonder Bill’s not eager to help him.
Posted by: rachel | August 18, 2008, 4:50 am 4:50 am
Ah, that ‘Bitter’ comment again. How often have you referenced the Republican slur ’San Francisco Liberals’, or even broader East and West Coast Liberals? Republicans repeatedly say these people do not represent ‘real America’, despite the fact that more people live on the coast than in Central America. Under Bush II, they even went so far as accusing them of being ‘traitors’.
Posted by: Willem van Oranje | August 18, 2008, 5:31 am 5:31 am
Yeah, Rachel. Dang! Some of my best friends is rural people.
Posted by: Valerie K. | August 18, 2008, 5:38 am 5:38 am
To me Phil Graham’s statement that Americans are a bunch of whiners blew bitter gate out of the water. At least Obama was talking about a segment of the population the neo-cons was talking about the nation as a whole. I bet John McCain won’t repent and get out of his adulterous marriage either. I guess to him his soul is not worth saving.
May be the neo-cons needs to focus on such biblical teachings like I Timothy
ch 6: 17-19 (Oil Companies)
Posted by: dems for the white house | August 18, 2008, 7:40 am 7:40 am
Tell me the one again about how Obama’s campaign is funded by mom and pop donations of under $100.
Posted by: marylou | August 18, 2008, 8:44 am 8:44 am
The Demos keep asking if we are worse off than we were 4 yrs ago. the answer is Deffinitely yes. only problem we are even much worse off than we were 2 years ago when the Demo’s won the majority of Congressional seats. Since neither party has been able to turn this thing around. Who do we vote for?
Posted by: Josh Irvin | August 18, 2008, 8:57 am 8:57 am
When Gov Mike Dukakis ran, the Republicans dumped on his wife because she took legal drugs. I hope Obama nails Cindy McCain for STEALING ILLEGAL DRUGS!
I hope Obama gets nailed for his drug use!! Thats calling the kettle black!!
Posted by: dragonfly777 | August 18, 2008, 9:06 am 9:06 am
“I will win. Don’t worry about that.”
Posted by: Belle Starr | August 18, 2008, 10:05 am 10:05 am
“…he was introduced by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who called him “a leader that God has blessed us with at this time” — Obama reassured the crowd of roughly 1,300, “I will win. Don’t worry about that.”
Does the left yet realize how much this kind of statement is not only fat headed, it creeps out the center? Claiming he is a ‘blessing from God’ is blasphemy, for one, and otherwise, a sales pitch straight out of Elmer Gantry.
Posted by: len | August 18, 2008, 11:45 am 11:45 am
“I will win, don’t worry about that”….WThell? Did Oprah promise him something….I wouldn’t count on it, as her popularity numbers are down too, since her long ago endorsement.
The arrogance is audacious!
The Presidency can’t be bought, although Obama has ads running in 18 states and McCain only 11…I hope that changes as we get closer to November.
HILLARY SUPPORER FOR McCAIN!
Posted by: Debra | August 18, 2008, 11:57 am 11:57 am
What a hypocrite!!! Obama says McCain attacks him rather than talk about the issues? Obama is the one who has consistently promoted his ‘star’ status, rather than come up with substantive solutions to the issues, and he’s the one who has avoided debates which McCain has continually proposed. Furthermore, McCain wiped the floor with Obama at Saddleback, by showing substance compared to style, which was the only thing Obama had to offer. The people in San Francisco must be brain dead, and Pelosi’ls statement ‘a leader God has blessed us with at this time’ makes me nauseous. The reason McCain characterizes Obama as ‘risky’ is because he is!!! In these challenging times, we don’t need to elect a community organizer to President of the United States.
Posted by: Gina | August 18, 2008, 12:05 pm 12:05 pm
Obama on Saturday Evening said he has learned through faith that it isn’t “all about him”.
Obama on Sunday — “I will win”. Seems to be all about him. The Dem’s chosen one.
Posted by: susie | August 18, 2008, 12:19 pm 12:19 pm
I say – THROW ALL THE KNUCKLEHEADS OUT — ESPECIALLY PELOSI AND REID.
Posted by: Melanie | August 18, 2008, 12:22 pm 12:22 pm
“I will win… why say that? Who is he trying to reassure? Pelosi is following into the messiah complex saying things like God has blessed us with Obama at this time. This kind of talk is what fuels blind idolization and hero worship.
Posted by: rafraf | August 18, 2008, 12:22 pm 12:22 pm
Here you go again with SoetoroObama trying to play the race card. What a loser! First against Hillary and now McCain. I don’t think people will have a hard time believing that SoetoroObama is a race baiter and the total media bias in favor of him since those charges have now come from both democrats and republicans.
Posted by: cspolj | August 18, 2008, 1:26 pm 1:26 pm
The elitist Marxist Obama going before his millionaire anti-American friends who want to hold the people back!!
Posted by: spock | August 18, 2008, 3:10 pm 3:10 pm
You left out the part where he said there are some voters that are angry and confused. we are not bitter anymore? msnbc had the whole story
Posted by: Bishop | August 18, 2008, 6:17 pm 6:17 pm
Sen. Obama is absolutely right: these knuckleheads have messed up everything they’ve touched, and it ought to be easy to toss them out on their ears. But cynicism has taken root, and people will inexplicably vote against their own self-interest–especially “independents,” many of whom aren’t so much “independent” as “uninformed.”
Anyone who READS McCain’s plan for our society should shudder. It’s the same mean-spirited stuff his cronies have been doing for years: more tax breaks for millionaires [this is about all McCain "knows" about the economy], deadly slow progress on alternative energy production, MORE WAR, cuts in Medicare and SSI (hey, if you’ve got your mitts on a beer fortune who cares about those other poor saps, right?).
It should be simple to toss these guys out. But there are plenty of voices out there spouting greedy ME FIRST politics (check some of the posts above), usually in the form of personal attacks on Those Bad Democrats. Their influence should never be discounted. We got Bush last time because of voices like theirs, defending the indefensible. They might well give us McBush next time.
Four more years. Think about that for half a minute. Now don’t go off and hang yourself. Take action. Get involved. That means YOU–the one always moaning from your couch about how bad these guys are but never taking steps to make them go away. This is America–we have the right to choose how our government behaves. Do things differently this time. Give some money, knock on doors for your candidate, talk to your friends. VOTE, and encourage others to VOTE. You’ll be very proud of what you’ve accomplished, and you can look your kids in the eye and assure them you’re watching out for their best interests. Finally.
Posted by: dennis | August 18, 2008, 9:17 pm 9:17 pm