Isn’t it telling how President Obama and his underlings are still planning to host six fundraisers today when the Bureau of Labor Statistics just announced the national unemployment rate rose to 8.2 percent? One would think this administration would spend a little more time, um, governing and little less time dining at fancy restaurants and meeting with deep-pocket donors.
President Obama will jump-start what looks to be a major June fundraising push with six money events today in Minneapolis and Chicago – the most fundraisers he’s held in a single day since launching his bid for a second term.Obama is expected to raise more than $7.2 million total for the Obama Victory Fund (OVF), according to figures provided by the campaign.
Flying to Minnesota under the banner of “official business” – an event at a Honeywell factory in a Minneapolis suburb – Obama will quickly turn to politics, lunching with three separate sets of donors at the downtown Bachelor Farmer restaurant, an eatery owned by Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton’s two sons, Eric and Andrew.
The president will first address a group of 100 guests, each paying $5,000 a plate. He then will meet privately with two small roundtables of deep-pocket supporters – one group paying $40,000 per person; the other $50,000 per person, a campaign official said. (The $50k ticket price is the largest for any Obama fundraiser held since the start of the campaign.)
The number of long-term unemployed rose from 5.1 to 5.4 million last month. Even worse, the Hispanic unemployment rate jumped to 11 percent and teenage unemployment still hovers around 25 percent. Wonderful. And yet, despite these terrible numbers, the president has no qualms about flying around the country “under the banner of official business” to solicit donations for his re-election campaign. Instead of spending the day with the American people – learning about their cares, worries and concerns – he’ll spend the day with millionaires, billionaires and special interest groups. Clearly, this proves once again that President Obama is grossly out of touch with mainstream American voters and not the “new kind of candidate” he previously claimed to be.