By: Jeffrey Klein
Political Buzz Examiner
There are real indications now that President Barack Obama has not really been governing the country since April 2011, because by all indications his 2012 reelection campaign has been in full swing since then.
As evidence, Mark Knoller of CBS News, the unofficial keeper of presidential statistics, counts President Obama as having held 124 fundraisers – about one every three days – since he launched his re-election bid in April 2011, compared with just 57 fundraisers President Bush held during the entire 2004 election cycle, according to Toby Harnden’s April 26, 2012 UK Daily Mail article.
Also pointing to Knoller’s tally, Chris Cilliza reported that it has risen even more since, adding 36 events in just the past 48 days, to 160 in total, versus the 79 attended by President Bush at this same point, as reported in her Washington Post blog June 12, 2012.
In Devin Dwyer’s ABC News article today, he reports that President Obama continued his record-smashing fundraising schedule, by attending six events in two different states today, bringing the total through June 12th to an astonishing 21 events.
At present, the record shows that President Barack Obama has attended 163 reelection fundraisers, which is almost double the 86 events attended by George W. Bush–during his entire first term–and, more than any other president in U.S. history.
Presidential historians and political scientists tell ABC News the fundraising spike is due to the rising costs of campaigns.
They also point out that Obama is under pressure to compete against pro-GOP outside groups that have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to defeat him.
This would include Las Vegas casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who is giving $10 million to a pro-Romney super PAC called Restore Our Future, according to an Associated Press article yesterday.
That comes on the heels of Team Romney shellacking Team Obama in May fundraising by $77 million to “roughly $60 million.”
Barack Obama and the Democrats are also witnessing the wilting of venerable MoveOn.org, which was formed during the 2004 presidential election cycle, but has seen its annual fundraising results slide since 2008, according to a FOXNews article yesterday.
Although the group raised just $2.79 million in the 2004 election cycle, their fortunes climbed to $11.8 million in the 2006 cycle, followed by $14 million in the 2008, peaking with an impressive $18.5 million by March 31st in the 2010 election contest.
However, a review of their filings with the Federal Election Commission show their fundraising fell apart after the massive defeat dealt to Democrats in November 2010, with just $9.1 million in contributions listed from January 2011 to March 31, 2012, during which time the group spent $10.5 million, leaving them with just $2.75 million cash on hand.
The message in a desperate May 30th email blast to donors provides insight as to what is happening within the Democrat party universally during this 2012 presidential campaign cycle, wherein Jason Rosenbaum, online communications director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee wrote…
“I just got a report with some frightening new numbers … Republican groups are out spending Democratic candidates 3-to-1 right now … I’ll be honest, if we can’t increase our budget, we’re going to have to pull the plug now on some absolutely crucial campaigns.”
In particular, Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who claims to be 1/32 American Indian, in her battle against GOP incumbent Sen. Scott Brown in Massachusetts, which race Democrats consider to be key in their attempt to retain control of the Senate this time around.
There is also that slight matter the 40,000 dues paying union members the exited from the Wisconsin branch of AFSCME, whose 97% of political contributions represent “lost” campaign funding for Democrats all around the state, due to newly elected Republican Governor Scott Walker eliminating their collective bargaining powers after taking office in January 2011.
This phenomenon is continuing across the nation by cash-strapped state Republican Governors, who are now “steeled up” as a result of Gov. Walker’s stunning June 5th recall election defeat of Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett (D)–even after it was launched, funded and managed by “Big Unions,” with the backing of the Team Obama state presidential campaign apparatus.
In his zeal to maintain the pace of cash flow into Democrat campaign coffers, Barack Obama has kept up a torrid pace racing back and forth across the nation, almost weekly, aboard Air Force One at taxpayer expense–hitting east and west coast celebrity circuits hard, by wooing fat cat “limousine liberal” donors at $40,000 a plate dinners, as well as shamelessly appearing on all of the late night entertainment shows.
However, his celebrity quest may create a public relations problem, because these celebrities are also members of the evil and much-maligned “one-percent;” but more so, his behavior also inspired the new nom de plume given him by Rush Limbaugh, which is very fitting for such a celebrity hound as he…
Barack Hussein Kardashian.
Unfortunately for him and the Democrats, having no [good] record to run on forces them to use a lot of smoke, mirrors and snake oil to prevent the facts from clouding their issues–and that has got to be incredibly expensive.
