Obama Heads West for 8 Star-Studded Fundraisers, $8 Million Haul
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(Image Credit: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Photo)
President Obama heads west today for a three-day, three-state swing aimed largely at filling the coffers of his re-election campaign and honing his message to supporters in key states.
Obama will headline eight fundraisers across California and Washington through Friday night. The events are expected to net at least $8.6 million for the Obama Victory Fund – a joint fundraising account for Obama and Democrats in the 2012 election.
On the way there, the president will stop in Milwaukee for an official event at a Master Lock facility, where he will tout a resurgence in American manufacturing and his plan to keep up the momentum. He’ll reprise the message at a Boeing factory in Everette, Wash., on Friday.
But much of Obama’s focus will be on mingling with some of his wealthiest – and most famous – supporters in Los Angeles and San Francisco, who will play a key role in underwriting his bid for a second term.
Obama will appear with the Grammy Award-winning Foo Fighters at an outdoor reception in Los Angeles this afternoon where 1,000 guests are expected. General admission tickets were $500 apiece, according to a campaign official.
Later he’ll dine with 80 donors – each forking over $35,800 – at the home of Bradley Bell, a soap opera produer-writer whose wife, Colleen, is also an Obama bundler. Actor and comedian Will Ferrell is expected to attend.
On Thursday, Obama will lunch in Corona del Mar, Calif., at the home of real estate developer Jeff Stack. Tickers for each of the 125 guests start at $2,500, officials said.
The president then flies north to San Francisco, where he will attend three more fundraisers. Up first is an intimate event at the Mark Hopkins Intercontinental Hotel with 20 supporters. Each paid $35,800 – the legal maximum combined donation to both the Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
Then, Obama dines with 70 supporters at the residence of novelist Robert Mailer Anderson and wife, Nicola Miner. Tickets are again $35,800 apiece. (Singer Al Green will reportedly attend. No word on a possible Obama-Green duet.)
Obama will wrap his evening in San Francisco with a large crowd fundraiser at the Nob Hill Masonic Center with 2,500 guests who will pay $100 and up to attend. The event includes a musical performance by Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell, a campaign official said.
From San Francisco, Obama heads up the coast to Washington state Friday, where 65 guests will pay $17,900 each to attend a private lunch, and later, at a hotel in Bellevue, 450 guests will each pay $1,000 for a performance by Head and the Heart.
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It must be nice to use Airforce One to fly here and there, it’s free, have diner with the poor people.
Posted by: Lizzie | February 15, 2012, 1:04 pm 1:04 pm
for someone who despises the 1%, he sure likes to take their money!!!
Posted by: acdcguy | February 15, 2012, 1:10 pm 1:10 pm
It must be nice to use Airforce One to fly here and there, it’s free, have diner with the poor people.
Posted by: Lizzie | February 15, 2012, 1:04 pm 1:04 pm
He’s the President of the United States.
Posted by: Trisha | February 15, 2012, 1:15 pm 1:15 pm
or someone who despises the 1%, he sure likes to take their money!!!
Posted by: acdcguy | February 15, 2012, 1:10 pm 1:10 pm
He’s never indicated in any way he ‘despises the 1%’. He has said and indicated the opposite.
What he has said is he believes their taxes should be raised back to the neighborhood of where they were before the Bush cuts, and that capital gains on the wealthy should be at 30% instead of 15% or less.
Posted by: sarah | February 15, 2012, 1:19 pm 1:19 pm
he is the 1%…we need broad based taxes rather than regressive taxes. 49% of this country pays ZERO federal income tax. he is the IT S GOTTA TO BE SOMEONE ELSES FAULT PRESIDENT. nice man but it stops there.
Posted by: catman | February 15, 2012, 1:32 pm 1:32 pm
Rubbing elbows with the rich again. For somebody who says influence shouldn’t be bought he sure has taken a lot of cash from said people. The media will give him a total pass on it.
Posted by: Tilly | February 15, 2012, 1:38 pm 1:38 pm
The media will give him a total pass on it.
Posted by: Tilly | February 15, 2012, 1:38 pm 1:38 pm
Obama has received over 50% of his campaign donations from small donors – $200 or less. Romney only 6% from small donors. Romney is the ‘rich money’ candidate.
Posted by: Dana | February 15, 2012, 1:44 pm 1:44 pm
he is the 1%…
Posted by: catman | February 15, 2012, 1:32 pm 1:32 pm
And he mentions that people in his bracket should be paying more taxes. Makes more sense than trying to pay off the debt on the backs of single mothers, that’s not going to work.
Posted by: Jim | February 15, 2012, 1:49 pm 1:49 pm
He’s the President of the United States.
Posted by: Trisha | February 15, 2012, 1:15 pm 1:15 pm
Brilliant observation, Ms. Obvious.
Posted by: Stu | February 15, 2012, 1:54 pm 1:54 pm
Dana, don’t believe the spin, rhetoric and propaganda…
Posted by: Freedom | February 15, 2012, 1:53 pm 1:53 pm
I don’t. The figures on small donors come from the Campaign Finance Institute which is mandated to factually track campaign contributions.
Posted by: Dana | February 15, 2012, 2:00 pm 2:00 pm
Posted by: sarah | February 15, 2012, 1:48 pm 1:48 pm
Sorry to put you in that situation. It’ll clear up in 2 to 3 weeks.
Posted by: Jim | February 15, 2012, 2:00 pm 2:00 pm
He mentions it, but he doesn’t voluntarily do it himself.
==========================
We all got a big chuckle out of that one.
Posted by: billionaire banksters | February 15, 2012, 2:04 pm 2:04 pm
Posted by: sarah
“………that capital gains on the wealthy should be at 30% instead of 15% or less”
Knock it off, 15% is on capital gains which is probably 100% more than what you and I pay. Why penalize the rich because they are successful??
Posted by: acdcguy | February 15, 2012, 2:06 pm 2:06 pm
Why penalize the rich because they are successful??
Posted by: acdcguy | February 15, 2012, 2:06 pm
Because capital gains are taxed at way too low a rate – less than a secretary’s wages are taxed at. Why should the super rich be spoon fed tax breaks?
Posted by: Sarah | February 15, 2012, 2:12 pm 2:12 pm
Posted by: Sarah | February 15, 2012, 2:12 pm 2:12 pm
Capital gains tax for everyone is 15%.
Posted by: Stu | February 15, 2012, 2:17 pm 2:17 pm
A capital gains tax of 100% would be ideal. It’ll provide incentive to everyone to invest. The stock market would soar. That’s what Daily KOS said and they never lie.
Posted by: sarah | February 15, 2012, 2:19 pm 2:19 pm
Because capital gains are taxed at way too low a rate – less than a secretary’s wages are taxed at. Why should the super rich be spoon fed tax breaks?
Posted by: Sarah
****************
I’m done here, anyone else, please feel free to try to explain it to Sarah, that’s if you actually get it too……good luck
Posted by: acdcguy | February 15, 2012, 2:24 pm 2:24 pm
Why penalize the rich because they are successful??
———————————–
just keep on telling working class Americans that they’re not successful. It’s going to continue to work out just great for you.
Posted by: thanks again | February 15, 2012, 2:24 pm 2:24 pm
Obama’s boyish grin can be deceiving. Now he must run on his record. He needs to get his base going and counts that they won’t check his record because they watch ESPN, MTV, late night comedy. Most know nothing about the economy or foreign policy. Here is why I am voting for Romney. I trust his integrity and economic ability. He knows how to help encourage business growth and prosperity. I hear attacks on his integrity, with no fact to back it up. He has lived a pretty clean life and I have been watching for many years. He understands the economy and how to fix the mess we are in. I notice that a lot of people who blog would never hire a rich person…it is an automatic disqualification; they prefer an inexperienced person who has never even run a lemonade stand to fix this huge economy. According to the stats, we are now over 15 trillion in dept and borrowing over 10 billion a day. Don’t they understand that when the well runs dry there will be no one to bail us out? Greece is just a small microcosm of what is in store for us. I checked the government’s own web site, Treasury Direct .gov and found that Bush increased spending 3,478 trillion in 8 years. In Obama’s 4 years, spending increased a whopping 5.993 trillion and he did not have to contend with 911 or Katrina. The graph on the page shows it even more blatantly.We are in trouble and better get it together fast!
Posted by: Mrs D | February 15, 2012, 2:27 pm 2:27 pm
Oh please keep the capital gains tax nice and low, I’d greatly appreciate it! Thank you!
Posted by: Mitt the Ripper | February 15, 2012, 2:27 pm 2:27 pm
Posted by: sarah | February 15, 2012, 2:19 pm 2:19 pm
It’s shocking you’re not rich.
Posted by: Bob | February 15, 2012, 2:28 pm 2:28 pm
Oh please keep the capital gains tax nice and low, I’d greatly appreciate it! Thank you!
Posted by: Mitt the Ripper | February 15, 2012, 2:27 pm 2:27 pm
We’d appreciate it too!
Posted by: Small Investors | February 15, 2012, 2:33 pm 2:33 pm
Posted by: Mrs D | February 15, 2012, 2:27 pm 2:27 pm
“I think it’s the most blatantly dishonest performance by a presidential candidate I’ve ever seen,” Gingrich referring to Mitt Romney in a telephone interview with the Washington Post Friday, January 27, 2012.
“Mitt Romney’s negative attack machine is back,” says a narrator as a Romney look-alike appears with a tommy gun. “This time, Romney’s firing his mud at Rick Santorum,” says the narrator, as the Romney look-alike darts around an empty building trying to shoot a Santorum cardboard cutout with his gun that shoots mud, missing every time. “Romney and his super PAC have spent a staggering $20 million brutally attacking fellow Republicans.”
Rick Santorum television ad.
So, lying, mudslinging, negative attack ads – Mitt Romney.
Posted by: Jesse | February 15, 2012, 2:37 pm 2:37 pm
Posted by: Small Investors | February 15, 2012, 2:33 pm 2:33 pm
WASHINGTON — President Obama on Monday will call for a new minimum tax rate for individuals making more than $1 million a year to ensure that they pay at least the same percentage of their earnings as middle-income taxpayers, according to administration officials.
“Small investors” are not earning over a million dollars a year. The new tax level is only aimed at those earning these amounts of money.
Posted by: Ben | February 15, 2012, 2:43 pm 2:43 pm
Hello America, February 15, 2012
The New Buzz Word now is HDHP
this is our beginning legacy from Obamacare.
Do You Have HDHP? perhaps you have contracted HDMP?
Yes, yes you have, you just don’t no it yet. :)
all of you are infected with HDHP or HDMP and its not going away
anytime soon, you cann’t even get innocultaions for HDHP.
there is no Physician or Hospital in the United States that can treat people for
HDHP. never fear you and your kids, must get tested for HDHP before April 17 2012.
its the LAW.
sincerely Fezzy Bear
Posted by: Fezzy Bear | February 15, 2012, 2:44 pm 2:44 pm
Hello America, February 15, 2012
The New Buzz Word now is HDHP
this is our beginning legacy from Obamacare.
Do You Have HDHP? perhaps you have contracted HDMP?
Yes, yes you have, you just don’t no it yet. :)
all of you are infected with HDHP or HDMP and its not going away
anytime soon, you cann’t even get innocultaions for HDHP.
there is no Physician or Hospital in the United States that can treat people for
HDHP. never fear you and your kids, must get tested for HDHP before April 17 2012.
its the LAW.
be sure to call your physician sometime this week, and ask him, how you can be tested for HDHP.
sincerely Fezzy Bear
Posted by: Fezzy Bear | February 15, 2012, 2:47 pm 2:47 pm
Posted by: Ben | February 15, 2012, 2:43 pm 2:43 pm
And you think the bigger investors would invest at the same rate if their capital gains taxes increased? LOL! Big investors do all kinds of things to legally avoid paying taxes, genius. If you attempt to punish them they’ll just shelter their investments and deny the government the revenue it was after. The rich are rich because they’re not stupid.
Posted by: Mary | February 15, 2012, 2:57 pm 2:57 pm
It’s true. Nobody has ever successfully raised taxes on the rich and actually collected it. That’s why we don’t bother to even try.
Posted by: gop | February 15, 2012, 3:07 pm 3:07 pm
The rich are rich because they’re not stupid
—————————————
-Just unscrupulous sometimes.
Posted by: crooks get rich too | February 15, 2012, 3:13 pm 3:13 pm
Posted by: crooks get rich too | February 15, 2012, 3:13 pm 3:13 pm
Speak for yourself.
Posted by: George Soros | February 15, 2012, 3:21 pm 3:21 pm
Posted by: Mary | February 15, 2012, 2:57 pm 2:57 pm
Yes Mary, we understand your point – there’s never any good reason to tax the rich. Never. That’s the principal we have always operated on.
Well, except for when America was a decent country under Eisenhower and the rich were taxed at 90% and felt privileged to do it and lucky to be here.
Now the rich just whine and say “I’ll move to China!”. Talk about patriotism!
Posted by: GOP sucks | February 15, 2012, 3:52 pm 3:52 pm
POSTED BY: JESSE | FEBRUARY 15, 2012, 2:37 PM 2:37 PM so it was the nicest friendliest campaign between Hillary and Obama.
Posted by: Lizzie | February 15, 2012, 4:28 pm 4:28 pm
POSTED BY: GOP SUCKS | FEBRUARY 15, 2012, 3:52 PM 3:52 PM, you forget to tell how much regular individuals where taxed in those years. Like 50%, sounds good to you.
Posted by: Lizzie | February 15, 2012, 4:36 pm 4:36 pm
when obama attends these $35,000.00 a plate love fests with his mega-rich cronies, does he hammer away at them about paying their fair share and how they only made their millions by stepping all over the backs of the poor and the working class? my guess would be no.
Posted by: grumpopolis | February 15, 2012, 4:54 pm 4:54 pm
i’ve asked the question dozens of times but never received a cogent response from obama’s worshipers. so, i’ll ask it again. how do obama and his supporters square his platitudes about rich people like himself paying more in taxes when last tax year he carried over a measley $12 grand of his multimillion dollar income in write-offs to next year’s taxes? can someone explain to me how this is not the height of hypocrisy? how is it acceptable for him to excoriate the rich for not paying their fair share when he’s jimmying his taxes to save one-third of what his donors at this event were paying out in campaign contributions on one night? $12 grand people…on a multi-million dollar income…how do you justify this and square his actions with his words?
Posted by: grumopopolis | February 15, 2012, 5:00 pm 5:00 pm
when obama attends these $35,000.00 a plate love fests with his mega-rich cronies, does he hammer away at them about paying their fair share and how they only made their millions by stepping all over the backs of the poor and the working class? my guess would be no.
Posted by: grumpopolis | February 15, 2012, 4:54 pm 4:54 pm
Obama doesn’t attack or demean wealth, nor the wealthy – but he clearly and repeatedly hammers away at his position that millionaires must be taxed at a rate at least equivalent to a secretary – on all of their income.
The rest is your fantasy, not what the President says.
Posted by: James | February 15, 2012, 5:26 pm 5:26 pm
I love the notion from the lefties that the problem with this country is that the rich do not pay enough. It is a down right lie, so there percentage is lower, yes, but there overall dollar amount that they are taxed is more then some of you will see in a life time. They are supporting all the Obama free loaders out there on 99 weeks of unemployment. Your lefty president has a created a country were everyone feels obligated to a handout and does not have to work for anything. If he is so concerned about the middle class and the poor, why not mingle with them, why mingle with people who can afford a $30K dinner. This whole argument about rich paying the same as a secretary is ridiculous. You take a secretaries taxes that she pays at the end of the year and compare it to the taxes say a Mit Romeny pays at the end of the year. If we re elect this president for another term it will not be long until we are going bankrupt and are on the verge of becoming Greece. It makes me sick to hear these leftist points of view, they hold no water.
Posted by: Luke | February 15, 2012, 7:05 pm 7:05 pm
This whole argument about rich paying the same as a secretary is ridiculous. You take a secretaries taxes that she pays at the end of the year and compare it to the taxes say a Mit Romeny pays at the end of the year.
Posted by: Luke | February 15, 2012, 7:05 pm 7:05 pm
That’s not the argument. The argument is that people earning over a million dollars a year should be paying at least the same percentage of their entire income in taxes as the percentage paid by a secretary.
Posted by: Jamie | February 15, 2012, 7:15 pm 7:15 pm
Jamie, but they do. Most jobs under $50K per year pay no taxes when it is all said and done, as at the end of they year they get right offs and most likely get money back from the Fed and State. And lets just say for a second you are right, how is that going to get us out of a $15 trillion dollar debt that your president has a huge portion of. Taxing the 1% one hundred percent of their income will still not even dent the national debt. Your president promised to cut it in half after his first year when he too office, why has he almost doubled it?
Posted by: Luke | February 15, 2012, 7:26 pm 7:26 pm
Unfortunately I was forced to reveal that the very wealthy often pay a smaller share of their total income in all types of taxes and fees than many working class Americans do.
Posted by: mitt's tax returns | February 15, 2012, 8:06 pm 8:06 pm
That’s not the argument. The argument is that people earning over a million dollars a year should be paying at least the same percentage of their entire income in taxes as the percentage paid by a secretary.
Posted by: Jamie | February 15, 2012, 7:15 pm 7:15 pm
Why should anyone care what you think? You’re unemployed and living off taxpayers. At least millionaires contribute greatly to the GDP. You steal from it. You’re part of the problem.
Posted by: Dan | February 15, 2012, 10:06 pm 10:06 pm
Buffet could pay more if he wanted, but he sets his own salary at less than his secretary’s so that he only pays 30% on a small amount and includes all the rest as capital gains. It’s creative accounting and I’d do it too if I were him but I wouldn’t at the same time claim that I should be paying at a higher rate. That’s hypocrisy pure and simple, I think he says it just to sound good. Actions always speak louder than words.
Posted by: Todd | February 15, 2012, 10:47 pm 10:47 pm
Why should anyone care what you think? You’re unemployed and living off taxpayers.
Posted by: Dan | February 15, 2012, 10:06 pm 10:06 pm
People care when the facts and argument make sense. Your lame-brained and uninformed attempts at insult make you look like an juvenile.
Posted by: Dave | February 15, 2012, 11:20 pm 11:20 pm
Posted by: Dave | February 15, 2012, 11:20 pm 11:20 pm
If you’re so brilliant and informed then why are you sitting at home all day posting Obama propaganda instead of doing something productive like running a successful company employing Americans?
Posted by: Bill | February 15, 2012, 11:44 pm 11:44 pm
james, what’s your position on obama’s $12 k write off carry over on his multimillion dollar income? surely you don’t think his released tax returns are my fantasy. is that action consistent with one who says that people like himself should be paying more in taxes? i’d love to hear an explanation or a justification for that.
Posted by: grumpopolis | February 16, 2012, 8:05 am 8:05 am
as per usual, there is no defense from the obama-philes regarding his “i should pay more in taxes but i choose not to” tax write off carry over baloney fest. a wise man once said that the choices we make in life are evidence of our priorities in life. to obama, his choice to carry over a measley $12 grand on a multimillion dollar income proves that his priority is preserving his wealth. doesn’t really square with his mantra that the wealthy have a moral obligation to pay more in taxes, no does it? and the fact that he chooses to contradict himself for such a small amount of money makes it all the more hypocritical. phony baloney limousine liberal is what obama is.
Posted by: grumpopolis | February 16, 2012, 11:50 am 11:50 am