From the first Morning Jolt of the week:
Barack Obama : Fundraising :: Cal Ripken : Baseball
Do you think we give President Obama too much grief about his relentless fundraising schedule?
No. No, we don’t.
The unequaled Toby Harnden:
Barack Obama has already held more re-election fundraising events than every elected president since Richard Nixon combined, according to figures to be published in a new book.
Obama is also the only president in the past 35 years to visit every electoral battleground state in his first year of office.
The figures, contained a in a new book called The Rise of the President’s Permanent Campaign by Brendan J. Doherty, due to be published by University Press of Kansas in July, give statistical backing to the notion that Obama is more preoccupied with being re-elected than any other commander-in-chief of modern times.
Doherty, who has compiled statistics about presidential travel and fundraising going back to President Jimmy Carter in 1977, found that Obama had held 104 fundraisers by March 6th this year, compared to 94 held by Presidents Carter, Ronald Reagan, George Bush Snr, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush combined.
Since then, Obama has held another 20 fundraisers, bringing his total to 124. Carter held four re-election fundraisers in the 1980 campaign, Reagan zero in 1984, Bush Snr 19 in 1992, Clinton 14 in 1996 and Bush Jnr 57 in 2004.
(Pardon the Brits their “Bush Jnr” abbreviation.)
WM at Weasel Zippers sees this and seethes, “He excels at two things and two things only: Running up enormous debt with other peoples’ money and raising cash for his own self-serving ends. He is nothing more than an ordinary street hustler in an extraordinary position.”
The Jammie Wearing Fool is an optimist, however: “Let’s look at the bright side. When he’s out there shaking down his fatcat supporters he’s not actually working, so there’s the chance he’s actually doing less damage. But I guess in keeping with his adoring media we can call this historic and unprecedented . . . Can’t wait to see how many golf outings he’s had in comparison with his predecessors. That’ll be another record-breaker, no doubt.”
ADDENDA: Is it a good omen for Republicans in the Massachusetts Senate Race if Sen. Scott Brown is draining basketball shots from half-court?
As mentioned, I’m giving a talk today at the National Press Club in Washington. Here’s the too-generous notice for my talk:
Have you ever wondered how to make it big online as a journalist? To create your own unique presence in a sea of voices? If you have then don’t miss this upcoming “Get it Online” Lunch & Learn sponsored by the Events Committee with National Review writer Jim Geraghty on Monday, April 30th from 11:45 a.m. – 1:15 p.m.
Geraghty is a blogger and regular contributor to National Review Online and National Review. He writes a daily newsletter titled “The Morning Jolt” blogs on “The Campaign Spot” at NRO and has over 19,000 followers on Twitter. Geraghty will join with members of the Club at lunch to discuss how to be successful as an online journalist and what it takes to be a journalist covering politics in DC.
Lunch will start promptly at 12 p.m. Prepared remarks will be limited to 15 minutes to maximize time for an informal discussion among the participants and Geraghty.
Seating is limited. Members should register in advance. There is no fee to register but you must be logged into the website in order to register. Members will provide their member numbers to the wait staff and pay for their own lunch.
For questions, contact Kim Bender at kimberlybender@gmail.com or Havilah Ross at hross@press.org