Posted on 06/15/2012 4:41:53 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
NEW YORK (Reuters) - 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 November 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
NOTABLE QUOTES:
White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters on Air Force One on Thursday morning. “The president has supporters from all income groups,” he said.
Sarah Jessica Parker - married to Broadway actor Matthew Broderick - sent an email to Obama supporters in May saying the event would be “fabulous” and offering them a chance to win two seats at her dinner party if they made an online donation.
The contest winner was identified on Thursday as Robin Hunt, an administrator at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore who attended the elegant meal with her mother.
The Obama campaign did not disclose how much money it raised from the raffle. But a similar fundraiser last month at the home of Oscar winner George Clooney, where two women won tickets to attend along with their husbands, raised nearly $15 million.
Parker referred to her own middle-class upbringing in Ohio and said she, like other high earners, did not need the tax breaks espoused by Republicans.
If these $10,000-$50,000 per plate fund raisers don’t come up in GOP campaign ads then the GOP is stupider than usually given credit for
such a dapper dan
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