Obama in Seattle

In my last submitted Blog, “The Road to Financing Obama’s 2012 Campaign,” I discussed Obama’s recent trip to the West Coast in order to highlight his attempt to gain support for his new job’s plan, a hot topic in the 2012 election. Through his job’s plan, Obama is re-energizing his Democratic and liberal supporters, which is in turn positively influencing fund raising activity.

The President delivered a speech to supporters in the Paramount Theatre in Seattle, Washington. During the speech, Obama ignited the crowd’s hopeful interest with an inspiring statement, “We are tougher than the times that we live in, we are bigger than the small politics that we've been witnessing. We are a people who write our own destiny, and it is fully within our power to write it once more (President Barack Obama). He speaks of the current economic crisis and the “old worn out ideas that were tried in the last decade” and calls for support of the Democratic Party’s innovative redistribution of wealth and career opportunities approach. The President discussed his new job’s act, which he referred to as the American Jobs Act. He asserted that this new approach to providing Americans with increased job opportunities will re-vitalize the economy through aiding “small businesses, boosting public education, improving infrastructure and other components” (CNN WireStaff). Obama stated during the speech, “"The question is not whether this country is going through times, the question is where are we going next. We can build the America that we talked about in 2008, an America where everybody gets a fair shake and everybody does their fair share. That is what this election is about."

CNN reporter Lesa Jansen adequately summarized the reported financial gain accumulated by Obama’s campaign during the Seattle segment of his trip. Before the Paramount Theatre fundraiser, Obama attended a brunch for 100 guests hosted by former Microsoft chief operating officer Jon Shirley at his home in suburban Seattle. The price of attendance is a whopping $35,800 per couple, totaling in the range of $1,750,000 (Jansen).

The Paramount Theatre event, also in Seattle, was estimate to have 800 supporters in attendance with seats being sold for a minimum of $100. However. The Obama re-election committee website required all those in attendance to donate $1000. Jansen reports, VIP seats were sold at $2500 and those who attended were afforded the opportunity to be photographed by side the President for $7500. An estimated $80,000 was accumulated by the event (Jansen).

Links: CNN Wire Staff. http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/25/politics/obama-west-coast/index.html?iref=allsearch
Lesa Jansen. http://whitehouse.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/24/obamas-west-coast-swing-priceless/?iref=allsearch