Barack Obama returns to where the money is -- Beverly Hills

Barack Obama is dropping in on his Beverly Hills friends tonight and will leave with his campaign coffers bulging with many millions more.

The first event, $28,500 per ticket, will be at Greystone Mansion -- the Beverly Hills landmark that was built with oil wealth, was the scene of a lurid murder in 1929 and has been the setting for numerous films, among them one of the “Ghostbusters” films, “Air Force One” and “Nixon.” (See photo below.)

The second event will be at the Regent Beverly Wilshire and will cost $2,500 per ticket. Barbra Streisand will provide entertainment, presumably singing.

The money will go to Obama's campaign account, the Democratic National Committee and joint fundraising accounts that Obama and the DNC have set up.

Both events are sold out. Obama's campaign aides won't divulge the amount they expect to raise, but it could be stratospheric.

The Greystone event is expected to draw 300. If all pay, the take would top $8 million. The second event is expected to draw 900, for upward of $2 million if all pay.

Hollywood moguls raising money for Obama tonight include David Geffen, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and Steven Spielberg, as well as Michael and Jamie Lynton, he of Sony Pictures.

The amount raised tonight or on any other night cannot be gleaned from public documents filed with the Federal Election Commission. Dates that people send checks and dates they are ....

....recorded on the FEC reports don't necessarily correspond with specific fundraisers.

The event occurs a week after chatter surfaced that Obama’s fundraiser somehow was faltering. It's not.

Steve Westly, a major Obama fundraiser and California co-chairman of the Obama campaign, said the candidate raised $7.8 million at a single event three weeks ago in San Francisco. The campaign claims it drew $10 million in online donations during the GOP convention.

What's clear is that Obama's money machine is running at full-throttle. He raised a record $66 million in August, pushing his total to more than $450 million.

The amount he raised in August from California won’t be known until the final August reports are filed with the FEC this weekend.

Through the end of July, $46.3 million of Obama’s donations of more than $200 had come from the Golden State, compared with $13.6 million for Republican John McCain.

No less than $5.6 million of Obama’s money has come from executives and others involved in the movie, television and music industries, according to data compiled by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. McCain’s take from those sectors was $885,000, according to the center.

Westly and others attribute some of Obama's recent fundraising success to McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate. Palin's conservative views "are scaring the pants" off Democrats and swing voters, Westly said.

“She will be great for the right-wing base,” said Westly, who ran unsuccessfully for California governor two years ago. “For independent voters, she will be viewed as a frightening figure, and I don’t think she has the temperament for the job, especially with a 72-year-old running mate.”

UPDATE: Speaking in Ohio this afternoon, Sen. John McCain, who raised $5.1 million Monday night for a 10-minute speech at a small Miami fundraiser, had some caustic words for his opponent's West Coast money haul today:

“He says he’s siding with the people just before he flew off for a fundraiser in Hollywood with Barbra Streisand. Let me tell you my friends, there’s no place I’d rather be than right here with the working men and women of Ohio.”

-- Dan Morain

Photo: Los Angeles Times

Comments

[coolrepublica]

Obama has said the economy is sooooooooooooooo bad the great depression is around the corner. But yet he thinks that they are good enough that he can come to california and asked people to give him 28K a plate and 2,500 to listen to Barbara sing. What a load of crap.

The fundamentals of this economy are strong. They are so strong that I invested the most money I have ever invested in the market yesterday scooping up bargains. McCain is my guy because he has confidence in this country and its people. Obama is the candidate of gloom and doom. If Americans listen to Obama they are going to kill themselves or make a run on the banks.

[keith]

And some nimrod just posted on another article that Obama raises money not from the rich & privileged but from people "just like him and his friends". How does this square with ya? Of course, the poster always could've been David Hasselhoff, and then his muse would be accurate.

[Marion Blake]

Barry Barack says the economy is in the worst shape it's been in since The Great Depression.
Where is the annointed one tonight?
At a $28,500 a plate fund raiser with Barbara Streisand and the cocaine-addled Hollywood left wing liberal elite.
What a two-faced lying scam artist this guy and his terrorist, thug, felon buddies are!
What a joke!

How about an article about how much money Barry Barack got from Fannie May and Freddie Mac- along with his own advisors Franklin Maines, Chris Dodd and Jamie Gorelick?
And Obama has the GALL to blame the economic crisis on the Bush administration?

[alex]

"He says he’s siding with the people just before he flew off for a fundraiser in Hollywood with Barbra Streisand. Let me tell you my friends, there’s no place I’d rather be than right here with the working men and women of Ohio."

I spent 12 years in Cleveland, so I'm just going to go ahead and call that a political maneuver. Those working men and women of Ohio probably don't want to be in Ohio except for having their families there...

[Andre St. Amant]

Yah! John McCain would hate to get 10 million
dollars from Hollywood. Maybe he should send
one of his 7 lobbyists out there to drum up some
moolah! He could have 7 fundraisers at each of his
7 Homes!!!! Poor, poor, poor John and Cindy McCain!

[jaime]

"economy is sooooooooooooooo bad the great depression is around the corner. But yet he thinks that they are good enough that he can come to california and asked people to give him 28K a plate and 2,500 to listen to Barbara sing. What a load of crap."

Jon Voight's house was booked.

[GeraldD]

Many of the problems our economy faces have been brought on by high oil and high gasoline prices. For the past 2 years, the Democratic leadership, including Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Barack Obama had pulled all sorts of strings to make the American people believe that the economy is collapsing. They have not passed up any opportunity to hurt the economy in order to make their point. Refusing to take common sense steps to keep oil and gasoline prices low is just one thing the Democratically controlled Congress has done to hurt the economy. We are now sending several billion dollars each and every day overseas. Our money is employing foreign workers to drill, pump, refine, and transport oil, instead of employing American workers to do those same jobs. Who in their right mind would question the impact this currency drain is having? Higher gas prices make it more difficult to meet one's home mortgage payments. And defaulting on Mortgages in part has brought on the current crisis. So should some of the fault of our current Wall Street Crisis be laid at the feet of Pelosi, Reid, Obama, and their other liberal Democratic friends? Without a doubt it should!

[When Elephants Fly (http://whenelephantsfly.blogspot.com)]

“He says he’s siding with the people just before he flew off for a fundraiser in Hollywood with Barbra Streisand. Let me tell you my friends, there’s no place I’d rather be than right here with the working men and women of Ohio.”

If John McCain really believes this, why did he divorce his first wife (after cheating on her!), in order to marry into Cindy's wealthy family? If John McCain really believes, why is he going to increase the tax burden on the middle class, while giving huge breaks to his cronies? (No wonder his wife can afford to buy yet another pair of $300,000 earrings and no wonder he lost track of how many houses he owns.) If John McCain really believes this, why will he also tax the value of the healthcare benefits I receive from my employer. So, if you expect to need any additional medical care of if you have a special needs child, you will be in a world of financial hurt.

John McCain just says what he needs to (even in his own words): http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=2arf1Fvuu5Y

[barry]

Actually it was not Obama who said the economy is the worst since the depression. It was former Fed Chairman and Republican Alan Greenspan.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/09/greenspan-to-st.html

He said it is a 100 year event and the worst he has seen in his life time. He is around 90, i think.

What makes me change from admiring McCain to switching off the TV when he comes on in less than a year, is He thinks that lying because, quote "the election is tough" is acceptable. I know all politicians embellish the truth a bit and I can live with some of that, but outright lying even when everyone knows is not true. WOW. It is an insult that assumes that the public is stupid, though reading some of your comments I can understand why he does it.

All parties have the large one stop fundraiser. In fact it is a system Rep. perfected over the years. They are now just pissed that a democrat as emerged that can do it better than them.

Plus Obama raised the bulk of his money from nearly 4Million Americans all over the US.

p.s. It is not the candidate who determine the price for these events it, is the person organizing it.
It is not doom and gloom to recognize a problem and wanting dialogue about how to fix it.

Republicans want to talk about pigs and distort others statements, Obama wants to talk about whats hurting America. To me there is no greater love for country than that.

Finally a candidate that puts Country First.

Lets talk about the econmy and housing.
Bush spins the story that his tax cut was making the economy work. He took the credit for it. What he did not understand was the reason why the econonmy seem to have been working was that people kept refinancing their homes to so that they can make up for the short fall of their earnings.

I worked in Mortgage/Finance related industry. I see people making $40K/year refinance their houses every 2 yrs taking out $40K to 100K each time. So now that person's $40K income becomes 60K to 90K income.

What nobody said was after the Fed Tax cut, the fed passed on spending mandates they wrote to the states. (No child left behind, security mandates) because there was no money to pay for it.

The states passed it on to the local government who passed it on the people. I know people who receive $300/year from the tax cut and ended up spending 2K to 6K per year to local government in increase user fees and taxes.

The last 8 years showed the largest increase in the gap between the wealthy and poor. The money that should have trickled down when the tax cuts for the wealthy were approved, got tricked overseas as jobs were shipped abroad and real income showed one of the largest drops in decades.

Look at CEO Salaries. two years ago the salaries for CEO who kept jobs in US went up by 2 to 7%. For those who shipped jobs overseas it went up by more than 17%. The savings were being passed not to consumers but to the CEO's pockets.

So can you blame Bush for the economic crisis? Yes.(Actually blame Cheney he was the one calling the shots on this). Can you blame McCain? No, but you can be concerned that he has the same short sited view as Bush did. Concerned that he will bury his head in the sand when indicators shows that their is problems on the Horizon.

The only reason why America survived Bush is because when he took over the Country he got it with an economy that was fundamentally strong.

The questions is can we take another chance, another 4 years with someone who does not have a clue.

[J]

Uh, actually whether you prefer McCain's or Obama's policy positions, the state of the economy (however you view it, which I suspect depends very much on your own financial situation) is in fact due in large part to Bush Administration policies. Wake up. Its not like Bush got into office 3 months ago and therefore this is all Clinton's fault.

[Stephen Gianelli]

Please God, let there be a blogger with a tape recorder at both events and let Mr. Obama call Sarah Palin a pig again, Ahmen.

[Stephen Gianelli]

PS: To all the McCain-Palin haters:

You want to get crazy here? Shall we contrast and compare—in great detail—Palin’s preacher with Obama’s?

Shall we compare and contrast Joe Biden’s graft, lies, and plagiarism (including the cascade of revelations that caused Biden to abandon his presidential aspirations in 1987)?

Remember this fellow? http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/images/2008/06/28/rezkonamyhuhap.jpg

Or how about Obama asking Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari to delay negotiations on the withdrawal of American troops until AFTER the November, 2008 US presidential election?

http://www.nypost.com/seven/09152008/postopinion/opedcolumnists/obama_tried_to_stall_gis_iraq_withdrawal_129150.htm

Or how about Biden signing off on that request?

[Shaylo]

This morning Obama said the economy is worse than during the Great Depression, tonight he is charging $28,500 per person so Hollywood can hear him talk smak on the rest of us. Go figure. That Harvard attorney is completely outta touch with the "real" world. And, after watching him over the past few weeks, I totally understand WHY Jesse Jackson said what he did. Obama is a fraud. Jackson knows it.

Yeah! I'm one of those small-town, religion-clinging, gun-toting rednecks voting for McCain-Palin. Pro-Life! Pro-God! Pro-Guns! Pro-Small Business!

Btw, I seem to remember Ms. Barbara saying if Bush was elected, she was moving outta the country.....like we care?

[VJ Machiavelli]

I guess they are doing well in this economy and have plenty of money to "BURN". I guess they are all "REPUBLICANS"

VJ Machiavelli
http://www.vjmachiavelli.blogspot.com

[North To The Future]

How DARE OBAMA say such things as:

Sen. BARAK OBAMA: “For eight years, we’ve had policies that have shredded consumer protections, that have loosened oversight and regulation and encouraged out-sized bonuses to CEO’s while ignoring middle-class Americans. The result is the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression. And I certainly don’t fault Senator John McCain for these problems, but I do fault the economic philosophy he subscribes to, because it’s the same philosophy we’ve had for the last eight years.”

How DARE the Senator from Illinois utter such words, when it is HIS running mate JOE BIDEN, the plastic Senator from Delaware - or now know as the "MASTERCARD VP", helped pave the way for the economic collapse this country presently finds itself in.

BIDEN is going to have a tough time explaining to people that he has been MBNA's man in the Senate--

"MBNA - now owned by Bank of America and one of the world's largest credit card issuers - has been his biggest financial backer, after contributing $214,000 over his career--he was the long-time champion and key architect of, in the words of Chair of the Senate Banking Committee, Senator Chris Dodd, "one of the "worst bills ever," the anti-consumer bankruptcy law, which helped pave the way for the present foreclosure crisis by shifting the risk for engaging in predatory lending practices from predatory lenders to hapless borrowers."

So what does "shifting the risk for engaging in predatory lending practices from predatory lenders to hapless borrowers" mean? Well, previous to this bill when a bank, or lender, issued a loan they knew the borrower could in no way afford, the bank could be legally pursued as a "Predatory Lender". However, thanks to JOE BIDEN'S bill that risk is shifted to the borrower who never should have been issued the loan by the bank in the first place. Or as OBAMA stated in a recent speech - the blame lays on the "irresponsible borrowers". WHAT?!?!?!

This team preaches change for the middle class... appears as though that change of which they speak is the further destruction of the American economy, further isolation of the middle and lower classes, as the rich get richer and the OBAMA/BIDEN team and their corporate puppet masters laugh all the way to the bank with our money... which they will then steal from our banks and then get bailed out with our tax monies. Sound familiar? Sure doesn't sound like change to me.

I find it difficult to believe that the millions of Americans being pushed out of their homes and squeezed on interest rate payments will be likely to vote for a ticket with BIDEN'S name on it when he is the one who worked through two presidential administrations to ram his legislation through on behalf of the mega-corporate credit card companies that make their livelihood by walking on the backs of the middle class, first with President Clinton who had the good sense to veto it, and then President Bush who had the moral bankruptcy to sign it.

The OBAMA/BIDEN ticket of change is a BOLD FACED LIE!!!

Had OBAMA wanted change for this country... I mean REAL CHANGE... he never would have chosen this corporate pawn for his running mate...

JOE BIDEN...

That's NOT change...

That just more of the same!

Your comments are welcome.

[TOR]

Let's face it the Democratic ticket is upside down.

Bush has been a lame duck since the Dems took the houses two-years ago and the truth is our current economic state is to blame on both sides. That said everyone likes to say McCain has voted 90% of the time with Bush- "I'm not sure if that is true- but no one seems to think voting with your party 100% of the time is not bad if your Obama?"

It concerns me when you will go and vote a straight ticket D or R just because that is the way you are registered. I've been a Republican for the past 20 years any before that yes I was a Democrat. I vote based on the candidate- NOT the party.

The final message in this campaign is who has the grit to stand for what they believe and not wavier?

Who will work for the PEOPLE for long term solutions- not short term "feel-good" measures? We don't need a situational President, because all they will give you is situational politics!

Obama has spent more time campaigning to be President then he has spent as a Senator! REALLY that is the top of the ticket? McCain spent 10 times as much time as a captive at the Hanoi Hilton!

What is the measure of a man when you look at it through those eyes? Looking out at a crowd that lives on the left coast that can afford some 28K for some chicken or tofu cannot see this nation through my eyes.

we need less Govt.
we need less taxes
we need strong Borders

If I have to pass a drug test in order to get and keep a job.. then a person receiving money that I’m taxed should have to pass the same drug test in order to receive the assistance.

I’m worried about whats going to happen in this country when there are more people riding in the wagon than there are helping me pull it !

The issue is the top of the ticket and one side is VERY unbalanced.

[Typical White Elephant]

Ok, why does his Obamuhness even need more money?

He had an amazing August.

Just what is he using all this money for?

He had a reason to go to Hollywood and do this.

My guess: quid pro quo (for what? Working on that.)