Did You Know...

**Written by Doug Powers

You might have been asking yourselves over these past several months, “Mitt Romney’s out there raking in donations by the millions and now he’s the presumptive GOP nominee — when is President Obama going to start campaigning?“

We now have an answer to that question. I just received an email from the Obama campaign under the subject of “Breaking: First campaign rallies of 2012.” It begins this way:

Big news: In 10 days, President Obama is hitting the campaign trail.

Well it’s about time! I’ll expect a follow-up email to inform me that the President is finally going to start playing some golf.

The Associated Press fills in the picture:

The president will hit the campaign trail in back-to-back rallies May 5 in Ohio and Virginia, the Obama campaign said Wednesday. Obama carried both battleground states in the 2008 election and will likely need to win there again in November if he wants to hold on to his job.

Michelle Obama, the popular first lady, was to join the president at the rallies, which will be held on the campuses of Ohio State University in Columbus and Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.

With Mitt Romney now assured of the Republican Party’s nomination, Obama couldn’t afford to stand off to the sidelines much longer in what is shaping up to be a close contest.

Obama has been “standing on the sidelines”?

CBS News’ Mark Knoller points out that there are other campaign events that President Obama hasn’t spent the vast preponderance of his time doing:

Obama Campaign says Pres Obama will hold his first two campaign rallies on May 5th (aside from 124 fundraising events over the past year.)

— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) April 26, 2012

When’s the last time the President did anything that could be considered a campaign rally and not just a fundraiser? I had to go clear back to Tuesday to find one, though the campaign insisted it was an “official” event. There were no campaign rallies last month either — no way anybody should consider this and this campaign events. And Obama’s fiery UAW speech in February was definitely not a campaign rally.

Glad to see Team Obama realizes it’s finally time to get their guy out of the White House and on the road.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe