Obama shifts from grit to glitz

NEW YORK: Talk about a venue change.
Fresh from giving an economic speech in America’s industrial Rust Belt, President Barack Obama headlined big-dollar campaign fundraisers at the home of “Sex and the City” actress Sarah Jessica Parker and in a landmark New York hotel.
Obama has shaped his re-election message around appealing to middle-class voters, many of whom continue to struggle to find work and afford their homes years after economic recession hit.
But the Democratic president, like his Republican opponent and candidates before them, is also targeting wealthy supporters to help fill his campaign coffers as he seeks to win a second White House term on Nov. 6.
The contrast was especially sharp for Obama on Thursday.
In a speech at a community college in Cleveland, Ohio, he said that Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney would hollow out the middle class with his policies favoring the rich. Hours later, he was holding court in the elegant dining room of Parker’s four-story brownstone in Manhattan’s West Village, where 50 guests including actress Meryl Streep and designer Michael Kors paid $40,000 a plate for dinner.
Then he spoke to a $10,000-per-person fundraiser in a lavish ballroom of the Plaza Hotel featuring singers Mariah Carey and Alicia Keys, telling the well-heeled crowd that he was committed to ensuring economic opportunities for all Americans.
The White House said it was important for the president to connect with high-rolling donors in an election year where competition for fundraising dollars is intense.
“There is no question that running for president is an expensive proposition,” White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters on Air Force One on Thursday morning. “The president has supporters from all income groups,” he said.
Obama’s campaign has prided itself on raising money from large numbers of donors giving small amounts, compared with powerful Republican donors such as billionaire Sheldon Adelson who give millions to outside groups opposing the president. Former Ohio Governor Ted Strickland said that Obama still needed to make sure he has the resources to compete.
“If he were to move in (to Sarah Jessica Parker’s house) and forget all the rest of us, that would be something else. But the president is concerned about the middle class, that is evident in the programs he is trying to introduce,” he said.
n FROM: Reuters