So what does Barack Obama do after a hard day of defending the common man during the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression?
Throw a $28,500-a-head fundraising dinner, of course.
Followed by a $2,500-a-head reception featuring Barbra Streisand singing a song or two.
The Democratic presidential candidate spent the day Tuesday campaigning in Colorado, where he talked to supporters about the mortgage crisis that has reshaped Wall Street and caused many people to lose their homes.
Speaking a day after the stock market had its worst day since 2001, he assured a rally in the Denver suburb of Golden that he understood the impact the crisis was having from Wall Street to Main Street.
“Jobs have disappeared, and peoples’ life savings have been put at risk. Millions of families face foreclosure, and millions more have seen their home values plummet,” he said.
“These are the struggles that Americans are facing. This is the pain that has now trickled up.”
Then he jetted off to Los Angeles Tuesday evening for a pair of glitzy fundraisers that could be the biggest for Democrats during this election cycle.
Republican John McCain lost no time pointing out Obama was courting the stars instead of ordinary folk.
“(He) talks about siding with the people, siding with the people — just before he flies off to Hollywood for a fundraiser with Barbra Streisand and his celebrity friends,” McCain told a rally in Vienna, Ohio, a critical battleground state. “Let me tell you my friends, there’s no place I’d rather be than here with the working men and women of Ohio.”
Streisand, a Democratic activist and Oscar-winning actress and singer, initially endorsed Hillary Clinton but has embraced Obama since he won the nomination.
The Illinois senator has put together a formidable fundraising machine that has attracted hundreds of thousands of small donors, pulling in $66 million in August alone. That compared with $47 million for McCain.
Obama’s fundraising skill prompted him to forego federal campaign financing, despite earlier pledges not to do so. That enables him to raise and spend more than he could if he accepted federal money. But it also means he has to spend more time off the campaign trail raising money.
Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.
Photo credit: Reuters/Rick Wilking (Obama speaks in Golden, Colorado)
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Thanks for telling it like it is. I wonder how many mortgages he could bail out with all his cash!
- Posted by ThomasYou forgot to mention the $5.1 million McSame raised in Miami on Monday.
- Posted by David McCormickGive me a break. No, I’m not a Barbara Streisand fan, but if someone has the power to attract an audience that can afford to give big time, then, yes, and amen, go and get it. This party doesn’t have the RNC’s wealth protection fund at work. Its outraised the other party every step of the way, and hard as they find it to admit, its been through an incredibly well organized campaign and the ability to attract the Obama untaxed- not the $250,000 plus per year folks who are really feeling the sting from the “worst day since the Great Depression”. Yes the folks who go to hear Barabara can afford it; but they’re not the beneficiaries of the Obama platform. They’re wealthy enough to care about things other than Toll Brothers McMansion mortgage payment but not so unwealthy as most Americans that their retirement wealth is not jeopoardized by a stock market fall since they don’t have that much to begin with.
- Posted by sean oWho cares about this stuff?
Let’s REALLY talk about our financial markets, the war, the environment, etc. It seems as though the only party wanting to discuss the issues is the Dems.
- Posted by wolfSomehow I doubt the fundraiser was scheduled to coincide with a really bad market day. And can anyone believe that McCain and Palin have not held their own share of pricey fund raisers. That is what the Republicans are good at. Nobody accused McCain of anything when he brought popular Latino stars to his events, or held fund raisers with John Voit. McCain thinks he can stop Obama from raising tons of money because people support him, but he is wrong. It sounds like his Paris Hilton line, sour grapes because Obama was attracting crowds. Then he went out and got his own celebrity in Sarah Palin.
- Posted by Sandy SadowEither John McCain doesn’t have much of a memory–two nights ago he was raising $5.1 million at a fundraiser in Miami–or he is jealous because Obama’s fundraiser is making almost twice the amount…
- Posted by ChuckFirst: this article is written in such a biased way toward the McCain camp as to make it almost useless. For a moment, I thought I was reading a FOXNews blog.
Second: lots of nerve for McCain to criticize considering her held a fundraiser just yesterday, and Palin was set to do a $25,000/head fundraiser this afternoon (which was only canceled due to the windstorm NOT the state of the economy).
How disingenuous of McCain. Frankly, if he would focus on the issues at hand and prevent his campaign from engaging in the negative and deceitful practices it has been thriving on, the other camp wouldn’t have to spend so much money to combat false claims. Then again, that’s their entire strategy to begin with. Can’t win on the issues, so they will bring out the lies, deception and deflection.
Wake up, Americans! Vote with your brains! Please…the folks that don’t may “deserve what they get,” but we all have to continue to live her with them. Wise up, people.
- Posted by iliaAm I the only one who is sick of the the conservative LA Times’ BS? McCain offers no solutions to any of our economic problems, yet they insist that Obama is out of touch when he holds a fundraiser. The ‘formidable fundraising machine’ that Obama has put out has consisted mainly of average Americans struggling to make a living, while the McCain campaign is in bed with corporate lobbyists.
This despite the fact that Obama was one of the few politicians paying attention and speaking out against those offering subprime mortgage loans.
Now they want to discredit the movement because a few Hollywood high-profilers are on-board with the campaign.
I don’t know what the LA Times and its reporters have against the Obama campaign, but they are the ones who are out of touch with the interests of average Americans, and they are no longer needed.
- Posted by Kevin KudObama keeps crying about how bad the economy is,
- Posted by Benbut if Americans are hurting so bad, how come they
were able to send Obama 66 million dollars last month?
… And, tonight Obama is asking Americans to give him
$28,500.00 each for the Obama/Streisand fund
raiser dinner. Two faced Obama has no credibility.
No Wright, no Farrakhan, no Pfleger, no Rezko,
no Ayers, no mean Michelle, and, NOBAMA !!!
“$28,500-a-head dinner”. Wow! Does it say that Obama is in the pocket of the rich?
- Posted by MaryHe’s out of touch for raising money?
“Please don’t give me money. The economy’s in bad shape.” What?
Talk about out of touch, McCain’s the one who says everything is just okay right now financially.
- Posted by JayBoth of them are out of touch.
- Posted by rubenPerhaps he can persuade some of his deep-pocketed supporters to send a few bucks to the Red Cross for the benefit of the hurricane victims. We’ll see if it comes up in the speeches tonight…
- Posted by GordonAll politicians raise money like this. If President Bush was not so universally despised by the public, He would be the celebrity at many publicized RNC dinners.
- Posted by RenoBTW at least he gets it enough to know the economy is in trouble.
Once again, a certain politician portrays himself as a champion of the “little guy” and then goes out to party and hobnob with the rich and famous. Nothing new here.
- Posted by DouglasWhat do you expect him to do… fail the US election. Of course he’s going to throw a fundraiser! Do you think McCain isn’t… or wishes he could throw one at 28 grand per head. A ridiculous story trying to put a spin on yarn that doesn’t exist.
- Posted by giovanniWhen Mccain says the economy is sound just as Bush said many months ago,,,and Herbert Hoover said just after the STOCK MARKET CRASH of the GREAT DEPRESSION one has to wonder where is he? ,,but with a 200 millionaire wife one doesn’t have to know how many houses he lives in does he?,,,especially if he wants to run the biggest corporation in the world does he? ,,,wait his economic advisory said he could not run her corporation period one wonders ia this old man out of touch, or just too old .and his running mate needs to stay up in Alaska to boss the troopers
- Posted by william$28,500 per plate? How can Barrack preach about knowing the common man then rub elbows with the elitists in Hollywood? Oh I get it, he’s Jekyll and Hide! The Hollywood stars are left wing liberals because their fortunes came so easy. It’s a little harder to give up more money to taxes when you actually have to work hard for a living, not make a hundred million dollars per movie, for acting. Obama should just stay out there in The Land of Fruits and Nuts.
- Posted by peter eldridgeWhat a pointless article. They campaign for $ all the time regardless. Win first…
- Posted by dSotoHe is out of touch. But after all he needs to fund the Alaskan witch hunt. He just “doesn’t get it”
- Posted by Sandy