Obama Media

Obama’s DC Donor Retreat

The Hotline’s Marc Ambinder reports that “Dozens of Sen. Barack Obama’s most generous donors will join his top contribution bundlers Wednesday at a daylong retreat at a Washington hotel….Heartening to many in Obama’s campaign is the fact that a majority of tomorrow attendees were not part of Obama’s original finance team. Many came out of the woodwork to support him.”

Trial Lawyers Commit to Obama Based on Faith

Anna Palmer at Legal Times takes a look at Obama’s success at garnering campaign funds from trial attorneys– all without taking a position on tort reform and other issues  they care about:

Despite Obama’s silence on the issues trial lawyers care about, those who support him say they are confident he will back trial lawyers when the time comes.

“Barack was a practicing civil rights attorney and constitutional law professor. This excites trial lawyers,” says Wagar. “[Civil rights are] the reason we’re able to take on [General Motors] and pharmaceutical companies. He speaks to that.”

Barack (and Mitt) Win “First Primary”

The blog coverage of today’s fundraising announcement has stressed the importance of 100,000 donors. Some, like Adam Hanft, push the envelope a bit in trying to distinguish Obamania from enthusiasm for Howard Dean c. 2003:

Unlike the Dean campaign, and the “Deaniacs” who first demonstrated the political power of the Internet in 2000, Obama’s campaign is showing an unprecedented dual level of strength. He is able to raise money from traditional wealthy sources - as his $25 million tally demonstrates - and simultaneously tap into a ravenous national hunger for a candidate who is capable of creating a sense of national purpose. He is galvanizing millions who had given up the hope of finding a politician who wasn’t manufactured in the same candidate factory.

Many of the news reports and blog posts I read in the summer of 03 made the case that Dean was feeding into a “ravenous national hunger” for change.

Obama’s Money Game: $20 Million or More?

WBBM Channel 2’s Mike Flannery and (via Kos) NBC’s Andrea Mitchell are both reporting that Obama’s first quarter take may approach $20 million, putting him right up there with HRC. Flannery:

The Obama campaign hints it has raised more than $20 million. That comes to more than $222,000 a day, more than $13,888 each hour of a 16-hour day.

Mitchell:

he may be as high as $25 million, all of which he can spend on the primary campaign. And as you know, of that $26 million that [HRC’s] raised, she won’t say how much of that is primary campaign dollars. Some of it may be money that she can’t spend unless she wins the nomination” (”Hardball,” MSNBC, 4/2).

Kos’ analysis:

If Obama outraises Hillary in the quarter in primary dollars, it will be HUGE news…If Obama outraises Hillary, and does so with a larger number of individual donors, he knocks off one of Hillary’s biggest selling points. It would be game changing.

Today’s NYT piece on the Obama fund raising machine noted Obama’s 2004 dependence on 300 donors:

nearly half of the more than $5 million that Mr. Obama raised in the primary came from just 300 donors.

Grant Hyatt Fundraiser: Stealth or “Trumpeted”?

Lynn Sweet comes down hard on the Obama for not being sufficiently open about its fundraising events:

Barack Obama’s image managers don’t want you to know about most of the donor events he is headlining — including one tonight in Manhattan for Democratic elites where the top hosts have raised $100,000 each…[The public campaign schedule] omitted is a mega-event that will probably take in at least $1 million at the Grand Hyatt with Obama and wife Michelle…This sort of selective release of information about even what city Obama is visiting on a certain day raises questions about the credibility of Obama’s claim that “we are going to transform the political process.” Obama putting the kibosh on reports of his fund-raising travels is politics-as-usual. Not wrong. But not different.

Apparently, the campaign had a change of hear about the Grand Hyatt event– the Times has details tonight and it sounds as though the campaign is being anything but shy:

When Mr. Obama arrived yesterday, no effort was made to keep his visit under wraps. His campaign trumpeted the back-to-back events that raised nearly $1 million…

Theodore C. Sorenson, one of President John F. Kennedy’s closest advisers, introduced Mr. Obama at one fund-raiser last night. He endorsed Mr. Obama’s candidacy, saying the senator was the only candidate he believed could restore the nation’s credibility around the world.

“It reminds me of the way the young, previously unknown J.F.K. took off,” Mr. Sorensen said in an interview, adding: “Obama, like J.F.K., is such a natural. He’s very comfortable with who he is.”,,,

A major Obama fund-raising reception in Washington this month is being headlined by two people appointed to the Federal Communications Commission by President Bill Clinton, William E. Kennard and Reed E. Hundt.

The Guardian has quotes from Michelle Obama from the event:

“…[Y]ou’ll have to forgive me if I’m a little stunned at this whole Barack Obama thing…Barack is really exactly who he says he is,'’ she said. “He is decent; he is sincere; he is authentic; he isn’t manufactured.'’