http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=184924
It might be just me, but it seems like it takes a huge amount of time and effort to raise $1 billion. Instead of campaigning, shouldn’t he be like… President-ing or something?
Heard about the $1B figure months ago. It’s actually quite disgusting.
He stopped in my city last week for 4 hours to go to a $39,000/plate fundraising dinner and go to the rich white people part of town for another activity. I can’t fathom donating that much money to any politician, let along Obama.
If people want to give money to him, that’s fine. It just seems odd that he has this much time to devote to campaign fundraising. The actual “President” part of the job must be easy!
Do you think he personally raised it?
Do you think Lloyd Blankfein personally raises all of GS’s capital?
There’s an organization doing it for him. They say “We’re going to raise money for you to get you re-elected.” He says “Go for it, do X, Y, and Z; don’t do A, B, and C. I’ll give a speech now and then if you need me.”
You can argue that only time it takes away from president is when he’s actualy making a campagin speech. And yet, presenting his proposals and policies to the US public is also part of presidenting.
In 7 months there is going to be an election; presidents have been having to campaign for re-election since the founding of the republic. The right wing has been trying to steamroll over him for 4 years, and you’re upset that he doesn’t just lie down and let them do it? I suspect you’re upset that he’s beating them at their own game, and without doing it Rush Limbaugh style.
America, like any place, gets the government it deserves.
Even if Obama doesn’t raise all the money personally, clearly, he is spending *a lot* of time on his reelection campaign. You *could* argue that the only time he takes away from President work is when he makes campaign speeches, but come on. That’s clearly not true. Policy proposals can also be a form of disguised campaigning, if not offered sincerely. Take the budget he proposed for example. It’s basically political bait. Many of the items that he proposed have no realistic chance of passing.
Also, this is not a Democrat vs. Republican thing. Why must all political issues be interpreted this way? Criticizing Obama is not equivalent to siding with his opposition. If someone criticizes Taco Bell, does that mean they must like McDonalds? All Presidents spend public resources on their own reelection campaigns. All of them should not be doing this, not just Obama.
I’m sorry. If the President doesn’t campaign because there’s too much at stake to try to ensure policy continuity past 9 months, who are the most likely people to be in the White House next year?
The only real question is whether it will be moderate Republicans or Tea Party republicans? I don’t see how you can say “not having the president campaign is irrelevant to whether the Republicans or Democrats are in control of policy.” What planet are you coming from, anyway?
What do you think Presidenting is, anyway?? It’s about policy formulation, building the support to get that policy implemented. Sometimes that means ensuring you have the votes in Congress. Sometimes that means ensuring that you have the votes in the general electorate. Sometimes it means ensuring that a private organization has the support and time it needs (albeit not with public funds) so that it can publicize and make counterarugments to your opposition.
A sitting president shouldn’t need $1 billion to get re-elected.
Isn’t this from the same group who’s complaining about all that money printing? A billion isn’t what it used to be, you know? 
I just think that he is really popular with wealthy liberals. That is not a crime. You can be popular with wealthy liberals while presidenting your a$$ off.
Although, from a legislative policy perspective presidenting has been pretty d@mn difficult over the past couple years.
Members of congress essentially campaign and raise money non stop when they are in office. The president is actually not so bad in this regard. As for the money, it’s actually not too much when you compare it to other things Americans spend money on e.g. movies, video games, potato chips, soda, ipads, etc.
he just needs to make a couple of more stops here in Hollywood and take a couple of more checks from our local nutjob Bill Maher, a billion is not that far away and won’t take that much time and effort
Maybe I’m just cynical, but I think campaigning is exactly what he’s supposed to be doing…
I have no problem with Pres. Obama campaigning, or any other sitting president past or future, I just don’t understand what he needs to spend a $1 billion on. It’s a well established practice to throw in campaign activities while on official trips. I assume the campaign reimburses the govt. for any additional expenses, but the biggest expenses of a trip are general security and getting there and back and he has that covered. He can also get on TV for free just about anytime he wants by holding a press conference on some policy issue. Most importantly though, he’s the freaking POTUS, if someone doesn’t know who he is by now, $1B in campaigning isn’t going to change that. It doesn’t take $1B to tell everyone that Mitt Romney is a super rich Wall Street villian either. Again, anyone who doesn’t “know” that by now probably isn’t going to vote anyway or is going to vote based on party not candidate.
To LBriscoe’s point, House terms should be extended to 3 or 4 years so House members can actually sit down before they have to hit the campaign trail again. If I were redesigning the govt., House terms would be increased to 4 years, with a maximum of 3 consecutive terms, and Senators would be capped at 2 consecutive 6 year terms. I’d also eliminate governors being able to appoint replacements for federal office holders who have left office. If someone dies or resigns, the office can sit vacant until the next general election.
say anything about bchad’s binky and the claws really come out. it’s funny how emotional people can be about “their guy”. funny because “their guy”, being a politician, doesn’t give a f*ck about anything but maintaining his own feifdom.
IMO unless you’re trying to get in on the action, being so emotionally tied to any obvious leech on society (from either side of the aisle) is sad to say the least. wake up bchad.
I’m not sure whose claws you’re talking about Mr. Turd F. I’m not the one showiering profanities here.
All I’m saying is that it’s silly to say a President shouldn’t campaign. When the Republicans had huge spending warchests in 2004 and 2008, I lamented it because camapaigning effectively is expensive and that meant that the party of prayer in schools, creation theory, trickle-down economics, foreign wars paid for via tax cuts, and anti-envrionmentalism had a major advantage, but I never said that they were wrong to have them or organize them.
Now the shoe is on the other foot and people are whining about how inappropriate it is.
Not to disagree with your position that a sitting President still has to do some campaigning, I would correct you in that it is fairly well documented that Obama had a significant financial edge over McCain in 2008.
That’s true… it was in the earlier stages that it didn’t look so good. I thought about double checking how it turned out at the end, but ultimately had other stuff to do.