NYC Letter: Grubbing For Dollars -- Where The Money Isn't Redux

Day 1,162 of CHOPE

Not all rich people are catching the wink-and-a-nudge behind Mr. Obama's class warfare blather.

OBAMA’S HIGH-DOLLAR
DONATIONS LAGGING

March 18, 2012 (WaPo) - President Obama is struggling to draw in big-dollar donations, with half as many people writing large checks to his campaign than at this point four years ago.

Obama is outpacing his Republican rivals in fundraising overall, and his advisers have concentrated on amassing small-dollar backers, part of a strategy to get more people invested in the reelection effort. At the end of January, 1.4 million people had donated to the Obama campaign, responding to appeals for contributions as small as $2.

The appeals are for as little as $1. One, two, three, and five dollar donations are not "invested in the reelection effort". More likely they are sops in hopes that the nonstop begs will stop.

But Obama lags behind Republican front-runner Mitt Romney in finding donors willing to give $2,000 or more — a surprising development for a sitting president, and one that could signal more worrisome financial problems heading into the general election. At this point in the last election cycle, Obama had received such large donations from more than 23,000 supporters, more than double the 11,000 who have given him that much this time. President George W. Bush had more than four times [49,000] that number of big donations at this point in his reelection.

OUCH! Again with the "Obama underperforming GWB" -- In non-inflation-adjusted dollars! Stop it!

Republicans and Democrats alike thought Obama would have a big financial advantage over Republicans this fall given his record-breaking 2008 fundraising and his status as the sitting president. But the trend of slackening big-donor support is the latest in a series of indications that the 2012 money battle is going to be much tighter than once imagined.

... Obama also recently changed course and asked top fundraisers to support a super PAC acting on his behalf. He has criticized the million-dollar contributions that fuel super PACs, a new type of political group, but decided that he couldn’t afford to take the beating from PACs on the right without responding in kind. So far, the main super PAC behind Obama — Priorities USA — has posted anemic fundraising, in contrast to the millions of dollars conservative groups have already begun spending against him.

At the same time, the Obama campaign has been burning through money at a furious pace. In January, for example, the Obama campaign spent $17.7 million while raising only $11.9 million. That has left Obama with about half as much money in the bank as Bush had eight years ago ahead of his successful reelection.

OW! Stop with the GWB underperformance already!

Some bundlers have decided to stop supporting Obama entirely, including several in the finance sector, which has been hit with stringent new regulations pushed by Democrats.

"There’s a lot of disaffection and buyer’s remorse among the people I know," said one 2008 Obama fundraiser, who is no longer working for the president and was interviewed on the condition of anonymity in order to speak freely. "At the end of the day, would they vote for him? Maybe, but they’re certainly going to be less active."

"Less active" is rich people talk for less money. And separately there is this.

Romney’s relative success in attracting moneyed backers in Chicago is particularly striking given Obama’s roots in the city and his overwhelming popularity in Illinois. At least a dozen of Romney’s top Illinois bundlers supported Obama in 2008, but have turned on the president over his handling of the economic recovery, Israel or other issues.

Goldman Sachs managing partner Muneer Satter and his wife, Kristen Hertel, donated more than $100,000 to Obama’s 2008 campaign and inaugural committee, for example, and also supported former Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel’s mayoral bid in Chicago. But Satter now serves as Romney’s finance chairman in Illinois, and the couple have given a combined $380,000 to a super PAC supporting the GOP candidate, records show.

Susan Crown, a philanthropist and member of the billionaire Crown family, has switched sides from supporting Obama in 2008 to backing Romney now, although some of her relatives remain Obama supporters. Crown said in an interview that she was prompted to support Romney after Obama spoke in favor of a return to 1967 borders with land swaps as part of a potential Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement.

"There are a lot of people here who are very disappointed in the president," said Crown, who co-hosted a fundraiser for Romney last year with her husband. "Illinois is very important because it’s Barack Obama’s home state and it has a lot of independents. I’m an independent and I’m working as hard as I can for Mitt."

THE HEAD OF OBAMA'S JOBS COUNCIL
IS VOTING FOR ROMNEY

March 19, 2012 (BI) - General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt, the head of President Obama's Jobs Board, plans to vote for Mitt Romney, Fox Business' Charles Gasparino reports (via Bloomberg).

If true, the news would represent a major embarrassment to the Obama administration, which had elevated Immelt in their pursuit of private sector employment growth. Gasparino has not spoken with Immelt, but said sources close to the G.E. chief said he was leaving Obama's side.

Oh. Big ouch ouch ouch.

This is rich. Campaign Barry brags on small money while it desperately begs big money. Campaign Barry is an organization based on a government model, to wit, failure is not an impediment to more of the same. In business failure is punished by firings and resignations as a prelude to doing something different that will succeed. Class rhetoric disaffecting big donors? Double-down on class rhetoric. The rich, at least those who work and run businesses, are firing Mr. Obama.

CHOPE.

Withholding the money to buy the rope to hang them.