Opinion: Obama confession: I didn’t run to be popular (but please send me $3 anyway)

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The Obama political family has never been shy about asking for donations. Remember even after the decisive 2008 election victory they wouldn’t stop seeking donations?

The Democratic president is not actually on any ballot on Armageddon Day Nov. 2. Just his political reputation and anything remaining of his coattails so tattered by his past unsuccessful efforts to sway elections in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Virginia and this year’s Democratic Senate primary in Pennsylvania.

It’s the actual Democratic majorities in Congress who really need the funds this month to fight what polls indicate is a scheduled Republican-flavored tide of ballots.

Still, First Lady Michelle Obama sent out a plaintive if blunt e-mail appeal the other day -- for her husband’s campaign outfit.

And now Michelle Obama’s mother’s son-in-law has followed suit with a money plea -- again, for his own campaign outfit.

‘I need you in the game,’ he cries.

First, thanks to the internal White House polls that they don’t pay much attention to comes a kind-of-admission to simple Americans who don’t live in a white house and can’t fly to New York City on a 747 dinner date:

‘I know some out there are frustrated by the pace of our progress. I want you to know I’m frustrated too.’

With Halloween approaching, the president completely ignores those scared by the pace of his ‘progress.’

Obama says the ‘special interests’ that he was going to banish from the White House and Washington are still there and have conservative allies in Congress.

They threaten the amazing progress he’s already made, Obama warns, and might even possibly undo some of them, if they’re listening to their own polls and get elected in 25 days.

Then another admission based on those same Democratic surveys that they pay for but don’t really read:

‘I know that sometimes it feels like we’ve come a long way from the hope and excitement of the inauguration, with its ‘Hope’ posters and historic crowds on the National Mall.’

Those were the days, eh, way back -- what was it, gee, just 21 months ago -- when an unemployment rate of 8% seemed outrageously high. In the days of 70% approval ratings, now nearly cut in half because, frankly, Americans have just not been listening well enough to Obama’s ongoing political and spending campaigns.

Then the pitch: The president would like a measly little $3 donation, more if you prefer. Thanks to an unidentified ‘fellow grass-roots supporter,’ the Democrat says, that donation will be matched dollar-for-dollar. That means, in case your calculator has choked on all those digits in the deficit, ‘your $3 donation will become $6.’

And then the politician who relentlessly pushed healthcare last year ignoring polls saying the economy was America’s overwhelming concern, makes a surprising confession:

‘I didn’t run for president because I wanted to do what would make me popular.’

That part, at least, has worked like a charm.

Related item:

Forget the veggie garden: Michelle Obama wants some of your money

-- Andrew Malcolm

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