Barack Obama has already held more re-election fundraising events than every elected president since Richard Nixon combined, according to figures to be published in a new book.
Obama is also the only president in the past 35 years to visit every electoral battleground state in his first year of office.
The figures, contained a in a new book called The Rise of the President’s Permanent Campaign by Brendan J. Doherty, due to be published by University Press of Kansas in July, give statistical backing to the notion that Obama is more preoccupied with being re-elected than any other commander-in-chief of modern times.
Doherty, who has compiled statistics about presidential travel and fundraising going back to President Jimmy Carter in 1977, found that Obama had held 104 fundraisers by March 6th this year, compared to 94 held by Presidents Carter, Ronald Reagan, George Bush Snr, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush combined.
Since then, Obama has held another 20 fundraisers, bringing his total to 124. Carter held four re-election fundraisers in the 1980 campaign, Reagan zero in 1984, Bush Snr 19 in 1992, Clinton 14 in 1996 and Bush Jnr 57 in 2004.
Doherty, a political science professor at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, has also analysed presidential travel to battleground or swing states, which change and fluctuate in number with each election cycle.
In their first years in office, Carter visited eight out of 18 battleground states and Reagan seven out of 17. Bush Snr, Clinton and Bush Jnr all visited around three-quarters of battleground states while Obama went to all 15 within his first 12 months.
While the Obama’s campaign activities in office have been largely in line with historical trends, he is especially vulnerable to criticism because in 2008 he promised to change how politics works and to curb links with special interests.
He campaigns at the expense of the Taxpayer under the “Guise” of doing “something official”…[??]
Somehow, I imagine that our resident liberal/progressives will place the blame for Obama’s fundraising numbers on either Bush or conservatives in general. As in, Obama NEEDS to raise so much money to ensure that an evil conservative doesn’t get elected into the WH. Or, Obama HAD to have so many fundraisers because of the decision the SC made in the Citizens United case.
It certainly won’t be because Obama is a narcissistic jackass who is bent on retaining power at all costs, including the continued destruction of the economy.
John Romney did some pretty hefty fund raising to destroy “deer in the headlights” Gingrich.
Money talks in political campaigns.I expect Romney will raise plenty but Obama proved in 08 he is the master.
This man uses more jet fuel, taxing out to the runway than most of us use gas in our cars in a year. If I have to watch him jog down the steps of our 747 one more time I think I’ll throw up. I keep hoping that he’ll catch his toe on one of the steps and fall head first down to the ground and knock a few teeth out for good measure. I’ll be glad to see the Liar In Chief , go back to Chicago!