President Obama wants to get re-elected in 2012. One would think Obama is in a good position to win re-election. His job approval ratings are not high, but pretty solid, and even higher percentages claim to like him as a person. Polls also show that more voters prefer and trust the Democrats than Republicans. And look at the roster of potential Republican candidates for President: those who appear to be almost sane are dull and uninspiring, and those who do generate excitement among the Republican base could easily be mistaken for characters on a zany sit-com.
The point is, it is hard for me to concieve that someone as clever and talented as Barack Obama could be beaten by any of the Republicans we've seen to date. Remember the wild enthusiasm he generated among regular voters in 2008, and the huge number of small contributions they gave to his campaign? It put him over the top.
So why is Obama wooing the rich this time around?
President Obama and top White House aides are waging a behind-the-scenes push to win over skeptical big-dollar donors — whose early money is needed to help fund a dramatic summertime expansion of his battleground-state machinery.
Campaign officials are working to broaden Obama’s network of “bundlers,” the well-connected rainmakers tasked with soliciting big checks from wealthy donors, while seeking to preserve the aura of a grass-roots movement by luring back the kind of small Internet donations that helped shatter fundraising records four years ago. [emphasis mine]
And why would the wealthy donors give Obama money if the Democratic party is supposed to be the party that looks out for the average Joe? Do you think the wealthy really give a damn about the poor and the needy? What do you think the wealthy are expecting to get from Obama in return for their huge checks?
It's pretty obvious to me that Obama has decided that it's better to suck up to the wealthy and pretend to appeal to the grass roots than actually earn the votes and enthusiasm of the poor, the working class, and middle class voters.
It would be nice to see Obama visit homeless shelters, food kitchens, and unemployment offices, and encourage the press to focus on how the Republicans policies and obstructionism are impoverishing the country. It would be nice to see Obama actually fight and fight hard for programs to put people back to work. At least confront the Republicans head-on and make them refuse to help the poor and those who are out of work. How about some public ridicule of those on the right who are overtly hostile to the workers, Mr. President? Get us all back on your side like we were in 2008. Isn't that a better way to win re-election than to sell out to the wealthy?
--Trakker
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