Somebody said the Trunks need somebody who can raise big money. Front-page WaPo:
Facing an energized Republican Party and deep-pocketed conservative groups, President Obama is kicking off his 2012 reelection campaign with a concerted push for help from wealthy donors and liberal groups unbound by spending limits. Trunk money will get spread among a half a dozen hopefuls, while Dim cash will go to one - or two.
The strategy - which could begin in earnest as early as Monday with the formation of an official presidential committee - suggests a notable shift in emphasis for a president who has long decried the outsize role of money in politics. Looks different from the inside, eh?
Obama frequently points with pride to the role that smaller donors played in his 2008 election, when his campaign also openly discouraged spending by outside organizations. Is Soros an "organization"? But now Obama finds himself seeking out the kind of big-money donations he has often criticized while encouraging independent groups to raise and spend unlimited money on his behalf.
Democratic strategists say the aggressive fundraising goals are aimed in part at intimidating Republican rivals, who bested Democrats in overall political spending in 2010. Or maybe the WaPo is starting a rumor to influence Trunk donors?
[In 2008] Obama also formed a group of "bundlers" who collected checks from their friends and earned special access to him and his staff, just as previous candidates of both parties had done before, and he declined public financing to avoid spending limits. Might that work in reverse? Say a big, formerly Jewish, eastern European billionaire spreads around a bunch of cash with the understanding that it goes to a certain candidate? [However ...] The 2012 campaign will lack the combination of factors that animated the 2008 contest: a fresh-faced candidate who could be the first black president; polarizing opponents like Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sarah Palin; and the eagerness of Democrats to end Republican control of the White House.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/03/2011 14:51 ||
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#2
would be nice if he restricted himself to legal donations by Americans this time
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/03/2011 15:38 Comments ||
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#3
Dale - Good letter that states in one place what most Burgers feel about Ogabe. Here's the linky.
For me, the money quote's at the very end: "Finally, you scare me because if you serve a second term, I will probably not feel safe in writing a similar letter in 8 years."
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
04/03/2011 16:23 Comments ||
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#4
Good grief, somehow I screwed up pasting the link to the Snopes letter. If one of our Mods wants to tweak it I'll be grateful...
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
04/03/2011 16:25 Comments ||
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#5
Republican Party and deep-pocketed conservative groups
Ignoring the long record of the Donk Party [recipient of mandatory payroll deductions of close shop union dues] and the deep-pocketed left wing groups that have historically beaten out Trunk cash collections.
#6
It seems that the older you get the more contrast you perceive. The way things should be and the reality of what they are is disturbing. We the people no longer. A glimmer of hope is the Tea Party.
Dear Lord, please protect us these next two years...
A flattering New York Times profile has increased speculation that Samantha Power, the Dublin-born aide to President Obama, could be his next Secretary of State or National Security Adviser.
She has been the main architect, along with Hillary Clinton, of the Libya policy and has an increasing influence in the White House inner circle.
No Irish-born person in recent history has had such influence on a president. Power, now 40, moved to the US from Ireland at age 10. With Hillary Clinton due to step down after Obama's first term, she would be a live candidate to succeed her if Obama wins re-election.
Or perhaps Hilde is going to step down real soon and we'll see Sam nominated sometime in 2011...
The Times reported that on Monday night last, Samantha Power took to the podium at Columbia University in New York two hours before President Obama was due to address the nation on Libya and received a rock star reception.
Which is part of the problem right there: a secretary of state is not a rock star.
Power, who is one of Obama's key advisers on foreign policy, insisted that Libya was not going to be the main topic of conversation.
"I'm not going to talk much about Libya," she said, as quoted in The Times.
However, when later questioned she defended the administration's decision in establishing a no-fly zone, adding failure to do so would have been "extremely chilling, deadly and indeed a stain on our collective conscience."
Since she began her career working as a war correspondant in Bosnia at the tender age of 22, Power has believed that nations have a moral obligation to prevent genocide. She can bring life to these ideals from her position of the National Security Council.
"She is clearly the foremost voice for human rights within the White House," Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, told the New York Times "and she has Obama's ear."
Power won a Pulitzer Prize for her 2002 book on genocide, entitled "A Problem from Hell," which examined the U.S. foreign policy response to genocide.
The book argues that the Armenia, Nazi Germany, Cambodia and Rwanda genocides occurred because of government authorities averted their eyes and individuals made the choice not to intervene.
"The most common response," Ms. Power wrote, "is, 'We didn't know.' This is not true."
Some of her critics say that she could be pushing the U.S. into another Iraq. The conservative blog American Thinker says that Obama has "outsourced foreign policy" to the Dublin woman.
To be fair, he's outsourced everything...
She has also drawn the ire of the Israeli lobby for her pro-Palestinian positions.
Power attempts to keep a low profile after she described Hillary Rodham Clinton as "a monster" during the 2008 presidential election campaign. Her remarks saw her step down from her position as an advisor on Obama's campaign. Since then, the women have reconciled.
Obama initially headhunted Power in 2005, after reading her book. After a long meeting, Power decided to take leave from her Harvard professorship to work for the then senator.
Despite her efforts to remain low key, the Dublin woman has an impressive artillery with two Ivy League degrees (Yale undergraduate, Harvard Law). She once posed in an evening gown for Men's Vogue and played a game of basketball with George Clooney. She has been described by the Daily Beast as "the femme fatale of the humanitarian assistance world."
#2
my prediction: hillary will step down and 'after consderabel heart felt discussions with family and advisors' have decided to enter the 2012 pres race after all. "my personal feelings need to be subordinate to the needs of the nation, blah, blah, blah..."
stand back, then, cuz she will clean barry's clock and be the next potus, no matter who the pubs put up.
That's not fair! He still personally handles golfing (maybe he shouldn't). Oh, yeah, fundraisers and brackets too. He just wants to make sure he's ready for the post of "ex-president" in 2013.
#5
..Inn't this the nice lady who seriously suggested sending in troops to occupy Israel during the '08 campaign?
Just asking.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
04/03/2011 13:50 Comments ||
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#6
Mike: yes.
Sunstein is interesting. On one hand, he strongly supported George Bush on the issue of military commissions, and supported John Roberts for the USSC.
But he believes in the theory of libertarian paternalism, that those in power should apply behavioral economics to law so that while people might in theory retain some freedom of choice in their lives, they would in actuality be steered in directions that will make their lives 'better'. You can guess who would be in charge of apply the behavioral economics to the law.
He's also a strong proponent for animal rights, high taxes and the abolition of marriage (wonder if he told Sam that). He believes that a president's interpretation of the law should trump that of a court.
He and Sam are insiders in the Obama administration, and I shudder to think what another six years of these two working as Bambi's henchmen will bring
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/03/2011 14:04 Comments ||
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#7
I shudder to think what another six years of these two working as Bambi's henchmen will bring
Very little, I suspect, as the House and probably senate will stay with the increasingly TEA Partyish trunks. Gridlock.
#10
"He's also a strong proponent for animal rights"
Cass has been outspoken for the rights of animals to sue humans. Sammy girl has advocated cutting off any aid to Israel. What a team of Czar and Czarina.
Too bad J.Edgar Hoover isn't still around to arrest this tramp.
1. Her hair says "But, I'm a girl."
2. Ringo Starr's distant relation?
3. Shes into Activity (no not that one, politics)
4. Shes an animal rights activist, but likes to beat dead horses.
5. She likes the nightlife, shes got to boogie.
Oh yea, and then there is the aide thing. Hmm. Maybe Obama does have someone on the side.
Posted by: Fi ||
04/03/2011 20:42 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
But now Obama finds himself seeking out the kind of big-money donations he has often criticized while encouraging independent groups to raise and spend unlimited money on his behalf. 
