Obama raising Hollywood $$$ on heels of gay marriage endorsement

President Obama and his aides claim they're just not sure how his endorsement of same-sex marriage will play politically. 

But his campaign is pushing awfully hard to make sure it plays well.

The campaign, within hours of Obama's interview in which he declared for the first time his support for gay marriage, blasted out a fundraising email to supporters. At dawn on Thursday, the campaign released a web video highlighting the president's new-found stance and lambasting likely GOP opponent Mitt Romney's opposition to gay marriage.

Now the president is preparing to head to a sold-out fundraiser Thursday evening at George Clooney's home in Los Angeles -- where he is sure to be embraced by well-heeled celebrity donors.

Hollywood is home to some of the most high-profile backers of gay marriage and the 150 donors who are paying $40,000 to attend Clooney's dinner Thursday night will no doubt feel newly invigorated by Obama's watershed announcement the day before.

Overall, the dinner is expected to raise close to $15 million -- about $6 million from the guests and the rest from a campaign contest for small-dollar donors, the winners of which get to participate in the dinner. It is an unprecedented amount for a single event. And it means that in one single evening the Obama camp and the Democratic Party will collect more than Romney has amassed in his best single month of fundraising. 


 Obama declares support for gay marriage !!! http://barracudabrigade.blogspot.com/2012/05/obama-declares-support-for-gay-marriage.html

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/05/10/obama-raising-hollywood-money-on-heels-gay-marriage-endorsement/#ixzz1uUsmqx7F

The Fundraiser-in-Chief ??? Obama Now Raffling Off “Shout-Outs” For Campaign Donations…

Whether or not your mom’s on Twitter, here’s something guaranteed to make her smile on Sunday: getting a personal shout-out from President Obama.

From now until Thursday at midnight, you have a chance to win that for your mom or a special mother in your life — just get five or more donations to your grassroots fundraising page to automatically put yourself in the running. (If you don’t have a page, you can set one up here.)

That’s right: If your name is drawn, the President will send your mom a special Mother’s Day tweet from @BarackObama. With more than 15 million people following him on Twitter, she’ll be honored in front of a pretty wide audience.

READ THE FULL STORY AT WEASEL ZIPPERS

Once more than a million dollars in debt, the Republican presidential campaign of former Speaker Newt Gingrich is now swimming in campaign cash !!!

Newt Gingrich’s campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, which has struggled financially for most of the year, says the former House speaker raised $4 million in the first half of the fourth quarter, when he began climbing in the polls.

That’s about $1 million more than Gingrich raised in the first five months of the campaign, when he fell nearly $1.2 million in debt, including $450,000 owed to a private jet company.

The third quarter was by far Gingrich’s worst: He raised just $800,000 and lost more than a dozen staffers who quit en masse in June.

But Herman Cain’s demise has been Gingrich’s gain – and with many Republican voters still unwilling to jump behind Mitt Romney, Gingrich has managed a comeback that is evident not just in poll numbers, but in dollars to his campaign.

“There were days in August when we raised $10,000 overnight and we’d be very excited about it,” Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond said in an interview Wednesday. “Now we see $10,000 an hour.”

Still, the campaign will carry some debt into the new year, Hammond said. Read More

BARACK OBAMA's Top Contributors

This table lists the top donors to this candidate in the 2008 election cycle. The organizations themselves did not donate , rather the money came from the organization's PAC, its individual members or employees or owners, and those individuals' immediate families. Organization totals include subsidiaries and affiliates.

Because of contribution limits, organizations that bundle together many individual contributions are often among the top donors to presidential candidates. These contributions can come from the organization's members or employees (and their families). The organization may support one candidate, or hedge its bets by supporting multiple candidates. Groups with national networks of donors - like EMILY's List and Club for Growth - make for particularly big bundlers.

University of California	$1,648,685
Goldman Sachs	$1,013,091
Harvard University	$878,164
Microsoft Corp	$852,167
Google Inc	$814,540
JPMorgan Chase & Co	$808,799
Citigroup Inc	$736,771
Time Warner	$624,618
Sidley Austin LLP	$600,298
Stanford University	$595,716
National Amusements Inc	$563,798
WilmerHale LLP	$550,668
Columbia University	$547,852
Skadden, Arps et al	$543,539
UBS AG	$532,674
IBM Corp	$532,372
General Electric	$529,855
US Government	$513,308
Morgan Stanley	$512,232
Latham & Watkins	$503,295

2012
Associated Outside Groups (1):

Super PACs:

Priorities USA Action

Total Raised: $89,473,611
Total Spent: $96,753,516
Cash on Hand: $61,403,711
Debts: $1,709,300
Date of Report: Sep 30, 2011

Source of Funds 

	Individual Contributions  - Small Individual Contributions  - Large Individual Contributions	$63,574,083 41,183,326 (46%) 23,775,177 (27%)	(71%)
	PAC Contributions	$980	(0%)
	Candidate self-financing	$0	(0%)
	Other	$25,898,547	(29%)

How complete are this candidate's campaign finance reports? 

	Full Disclosure	$35,281,308	(83.7%)
	Incomplete	$5,001,125	(11.9%)
	No Disclosure	$1,852,806	(4.4%)