Fundraiser-in-chief’s campaign on unsustainable spending spree
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Naturally, President Obama runs his campaign like he runs the country: Spending like there’s no tomorrow.
Via the Wall Street Journal comes news that some Democrats are worried the fundraiser-in-chief isn’t raising enough funds to keep up with bills. George Clooney better head back to Switzerland with a bigger moneybag. Stat.
The Obama campaign has been spending heavily on payroll, television ads and polling for months, hoping to tarnish Republican challenger Mitt Romney in the eyes of voters at an early stage of the general-election showdown.
But some Democrats worry that the overhead built by the Obama camp over the past 15 months will prove impossible to sustain. Unless fundraising picks up, the Obama campaign may enter the season’s final stretch confronting hard choices: paring salaries, scaling back advertising or pulling out of swing states in a bid to control costs, these Democrats say.
The campaign of President Obama, shown above last week in Jacksonville, Fla., spent twice as much as that of Mitt Romney last month.
The president spent twice as much as Mr. Romney in June, as his campaign purchased more TV ads, paid more than twice as many employees and spent millions of dollars on public-opinion polls, federal records show.
June was the second month in a row that Mr. Obama’s campaign dipped into the red, while the president was outraised by the Romney campaign. In May and June combined, the Obama campaign spent 20% more than it took in, records show.
From the Politico newsletter this morning:
THE PRESIDENT’S DAY: “In the morning, the President will depart San Francisco, California, en route Reno … In Reno, the President will take part in an official event where he will deliver remarks at the 113th National Convention of the VFW … at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center … The President will then depart Reno, Nevada, en route Oakland … In Oakland, the President will attend three campaign events. The first event at the Scottish Rite Center is closed press. The second event at a private home will be print pool for remarks only. The third event at the Fox Theatre is pooled for television and open to pre-credentialed still photographers and correspondents. The President will spend the night in San Francisco.”
–This evening’s fundraisers, per Jen Psaki in gaggle with Carney: “[H]e’ll have a roundtable in Oakland. We expect about 25 people. Tickets are $35,800 per person. … Then he’s going to hold a dinner at a private residence. We expect about 60 people. The tickets are $35,800 again.”
–POTUS canceled a grassroots campaign event that he was to headline Tuesday in Portland, Ore. Per Psaki, the event was “pulled down” because of “the nature of the tragedy and the feeling … that given the tone of grassroots events, it was the right step to take,” and also to have the resources for yesterday’s Aurora trip.
So, the Aurora pit stop is being used as an excuse to cancel the less lucrative grass-roots event in Portland, but the show must go on for the lavish, high-dollar private fundraisers in California.
Never let a crisis go to waste…
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Heh. Our friend and guest-blogger-in-chief Doug Powers e-mails: “I’m sure Obama’s fundraising will pick back up once Anna Wintour devours more souls with her stare at another fundraiser.”
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Categories: 2012 Campaign, Barack Obama
