As if they haven’t made their financial panic clear enough, another e-mail of donation distress – shared by Bloomberg -- was issued Tuesday by President Barack Obama himself.
“We’re getting out-raised -- a first for a sitting president, if this continues. Not just by the super- PACs and outside groups that are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into misleading ads, but by our opponent and the Republican Party, which just out-raised us for the second month in a row.”
With 172 campaign events under his belt as of Monday – including numerous glitzy Hollywood fundraisers -- Obama has attended more campaign events than any incumbent president in United States history.
They’ve raffled off chances to have “Dinner with Barack” -- and a legion of revolving guest stars -- for as little as $3. They’ve hawked Obama 2012 car magnets for $10 donations, sold “I Meow for Michelle” cat collars for $12 and Obama grill spatulas for $40.
The only things missing are a tin cup, a street corner and a cardboard sign reading: “Will do anything for a campaign donation.”
So, why isn’t it working? Despite Obama’s break-neck effort to scrape up campaign donations, why are people voluntarily sending more money to Mitt Romney?
Obamacare could be factor. Americans never wanted it. Soon after the Supreme Court announced its decision to uphold the law, Mitt Romney vowed to repeal it.
Rasmussen’s July 9 survey -- which showed 53 percent still want the law repealed and 80 percent believe that Romney will do it if he’s elected president – may explain why 43,000 Americans shoved $4.3 million into Romney’s campaign within hours of making that promise.
"Obamacare is many things,” Democratic strategist Pat Caddell wrote for Breitbart on Tuesday, “but the biggest single thing is the thing that they said it wasn’t--the ObamaTax.”
"The American people have shown that they can tolerate incompetent policy. But what they will not tolerate is being lied to."
But there is also Obama’s war against the evil rich.
On Monday, Obama announced that he believes “it’s time to let the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans” to expire.
“Many members of the other party believe that prosperity comes from the top down,” Obama said Monday, “so that if we spend trillions more on tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, that that will somehow unleash jobs and economic growth.”
“I disagree,” he added. “I think they’re wrong.”
Then, like singing a lullaby to those who simply want to remain sleeping, the president spoke of “we” and the capacity to “spend trillions more on tax cuts” with such tenderness that one could almost forget that “we” is “him” and that that the “trillions more” he wants to take – and “spend” -- were legitimately earned by -- and lawfully belong to -- someone else.
As reported Tuesday by The New York Times, several top Obama donors have said privately that the president’s attacks on Romney’s private equity career -- combined with his criticisms of tax rates for the wealthy -- have made it difficult to raise money on his behalf.
“He will not have the same level of support from the business community as last time — either in endorsements, money or support,” said one Obama backer who wished to remain anonymous because of his relationship with the campaign. “That’s clear.”
Even R. Donahue Peebles, a New York businessman who raised more than $100,000 for Obama’s reelection campaign, believes Obama’s attacks on the wealthy are unreasonable.
“I just got back from Rhode Island on my boat,” Peebles said, referring to the criticisms levied against Romney for daring to take his family on a boating vacation on New Hampshire’s Lake Winnipesaukee. “I can hold 12 people on my boat. I don’t feel that I’m out of touch with Americans or that I am a bad person. I find it offensive, and I’m a supporter.”
As for Obama’s tedious demands that the rich need to “pay their fair share,” The Washington Times reported Tuesday that the rich already pay “an outsized share of taxes.”
According to latest analysis by the Congressional Budget Office -- while the bottom 20 percent of American earners paid just three-tenths of a percent of the total federal tax burden -- the richest 20 percent paid 67.9 percent of taxes.
In the meantime, while the president continues to lick his donation wounds, someone should tell him a little campaign secret. When you are so desperate for money that you start taking cheap shots at America's most successful citizens, you will ultimately wind up shooting yourself in the foot.
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