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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Why would Obama punish his supporters with Babs? Oh, I guess you could just pay the $28,500, forgo the additional $2,500 and scoot out the back before the maudlin caterwauling begins. Does anyone know how many celebs headed for the exits right after the dinner?
- Posted by FallonObama is touch with the little people alright - in touch with their wallets.
Once elected these people think he will invite them all to the white house for chicken dinner.
Sorry - he is going too be too busy repaying all his media giant Viacom’s payback for their “support”.
- Posted by robtThis is an Election Year ! Even in a time of crisis, the canidates have to trudge on, for God Sakes , fundraisers are a necessary part of campaining… I wish people would grow up and concentrate on who the best candidate is, and how they can bring some desparate change to this country…Nit Picking is so immature…This is probably the most important election in our history.
- Posted by susan hardwickI wonder if these well to do elitists, “The Cal Crowd” and Senator Obama would really show their charitable side and direct that fundraising money down to the Texas hurricane victims. Or is that asking too much to really show that they care?
- Posted by BETHI recalled that Senator Obama defined “the rich” as income over $250,000. I guess, most of the riches by his definition will never be able to pay $28,500 for a meal. It is nice for his to accept the checks, that is called the “neighborliness”.
given Senator’s own records of handling his own money, for example: unable to pay back student loan 15 years out of school, I am not sure it is safe to trust him and his team with Americans’ money.
- Posted by wumingBarack Obama raises $9 million at glitzy Hollywood fundraiser…
… just hours after he accused Senator McCain of being out of touch with middle class America during challenging economic times.
- Posted by Sister ToldjahChutzpah, anyone? Blogger Richard Horton at BCB’s blog quipped in the comments section:
Maybe Hollywood needs…
this was a cheaper entry than Monday night in Miami to see McCain — that was $50,000 a person and those attendees were corporate heads, gas company executives and wall street powerbrokers
So tell me - who poses a bigger risk in the access to power conversation
The president of Exxon-Mobil or a movie star
Priorities people — please
- Posted by alisonNew low for McCain! Palin does a close-door fundraiser in Ohio with some sleazy corporate interests while Johnny Mac takes a cheap shot at Barack. So, he and Palin are attending the same kinds of fundraisers — including the Beverly Hills fete he profitably attended last month — and he pretends outrage about Mr. Obama’s “elitist” party. All while his Champion Snob Elitist Adulterous Wife/Nurse applauds behind him???
Who IS this guy??? What happened to John McCain?
- Posted by SuePBiased story - if anything it reveals his fundraising and managment abaility!
- Posted by OmarDo you not think that McPalin in out rubbing elbows with the corporate rich? Of course he is! They both have to raise money and if anyone blames Obama for this fundraiser, well then it is because it wasn’t your candidate, McPalin. Regardless, there is a reason that Obama is raising more than McPalin and that is because he is winning in this race handidly! Watch out, the Dems are coming back full force!
- Posted by Mary AnnFollow the money. Both McCain and Obama will go to whatever fundraiser they will get large donations from. They will also hold back their individual leanings to appear moderate in order to get the average guy/gal vote. This is politics from the ancient Greeks to today. We should not be surprised by where they get their campaign funds nor from who.
- Posted by John“Let me tell you my friends, there’s no place I’d rather be than here with the working men and women of Ohio.”
Wait a minute. Is McPalin saying that even if he did get elected (excuse me while I laugh uproariously), he would be hanging out with working folks in Ohio rather than attending to duties in the Oval Office (kind of like Shrub cutting brush in Crawford), preventing people from getting any work done, thus getting them fired, adding further to unemployment, just because they are his “friends”?
Something seems amiss here . . . hmmm . . . oh, I get it! He’s lying again!! Well, at least he is being consistent, no flip-flopping on that liar-liar behavior. And by adding to the unemployment stats, he is continuing the sound policies we have Shrub and his ilk to thank for.
- Posted by IagoToday AIG was bailed out by the taxpayers, the Republican party was so sure that social security should be in the hands of the criminals on Wall street. We must wake up and stop this party of Tom Delay, Dick Cheney, Rush Limbaugh and George W. Bush!
- Posted by EdwardI like how McCain is attacking Obama for his “celebrity friends” especially since John McCain was celebrating his 70th birthday on convicted felon Raffaello Follieri rented yacht with starlet girlfriend Anne Hathaway: http://exiledonline.com/the-mccain-folli eri-bang-boat/
- Posted by Tyler DurdenWhat a one-sided article. As the Wash Post noted, “The $5.1 million McCain raised Monday night at a swank Miami hotel is apparently a distant memory…” McCain is the one flip-flopping on the economy, trying to sell us on the lie that by saying the fundamentals were strong, by “fundamentals” he meant “workers.” That’s at odds with what he has said previously.
But that’s not new. As the Post also noted:
“McCain also used a little selective history in saying that while Obama praises the economic stimulus Congress provided, ‘he didn’t even show up to vote.’”
“McCain is right that Obama was not there when the bill passed 81-16 last February. But the Illinois senator had voted for it the day before, when Senate Republicans blocked a final vote. Obama and then-Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton were campaigning when the final vote was taken.
“McCain voted yea on the final round, but missed the procedural vote Obama made.
- Posted by Shunna13[...] Looks like the Democratic presidential nominee is doing what he can to get that story line out there. Reuters’ David Alexander asks, “So what does Barack Obama do after a hard day of defending the common man during the worst financial…“ [...]
- Posted by GayPatriot » Barack Obama’s Celebrity Story LineHA HA HA! Talk about BIASED reporting. Wasn’t John McCain recently at a swanky Miami location raising money for his campaign? McCain (and his puppeteer Karl Rove) would drool all over Barbra Steisand for a fundraiser. Instead, McCain is stuck with celebrity the likes of Ted Nugent and Chuck Norris. The Republicans are PATHETIC! Nothing to go on but lies and slinging mud.
- Posted by Stefanie“Thanks for telling it like it is. I wonder how many mortgages he could bail out with all his cash!”
Probably not as many as he could by changing all of the current failing economic policies in office. ;]
- Posted by Matthew HunsakerThis is a great moment for us in American. Change we can believe in. I saw a site that represents something greater than dinner, Tee-shirts, Caps and Mugs. Please let’s help do the right thing. Vote on the person of your choice. This is America, we all have the right to vote as we wish to. It’s so easy to recognize those who don’t have and those who do. If you support OBAMA than go to “forobama.us”. Share the site with supporters who want a special memory for this golden moment in history.
And if you are not a Obama supporter, than why would you visit the site? It’s not for you. As per how much the fundriser dinner and reception cost…Why are you so concerned. Did you pay for it? Did you go?
- Posted by D AncrumGuess he forgot about that 5 something million he raised at that swanky hotel in Miami on Monday. Whoops!
More power to Obama. He’s going to need plenty of money to fund ads that debunk McCain’s appallingly slimy campaign ads and statements filled with half-truths, distortions, and flat-out, pants-on-fire lies.
If McCain thinks so highly of us working-class Ohioans, perhaps he should treat us like intelligent, discerning adults.
There are distortions on both sides. That’s what politicians do. What matters in the end is what they distort, and how often they do it.
If the McCain campaign believes we are so mentally bereft and logically bankrupt as to believe that Obama supported teaching kids to use condoms before learning how to read (that rascal Obama, supporting teaching 5 year olds how to protect themselves from child molesters and other AGE-APPROPRIATE good touch/bad touch educatation!), then I believe McCain is running a swiftboat campaign unworthy of the office he’s pursuing at all costs, his integrity included.
It’s pretty clear he sees us as a bunch of slack-jawed yokels opposed to checking the facts. I, for one, intend to prove him fatally wrong this November.
- Posted by Matthew Hunsaker