Obama event at George Clooney's house: Bad to be 'celebrity in chief'?
What do you get when you combine Barack Obama with George Clooney? You get a political fundraiser that is quite possibly the most lucrative such event ever. Also, a confluence of the White House and Hollywood that Republican opponents of the administration think they may be able to exploit.
Let鈥檚 back up a bit here, shall we? In the wake of his pronouncement that he supports gay marriage, President Obama on Thursday evening is set to attend a sold-out fundraiser at the Los Angeles home of actor George Clooney. The appeal of Obama to wealthy Left Coast liberals is such that the star power assembled for the dinner would be able to illuminate a large swath of Ohio, Florida, or any other swing state you choose.
Barbra Streisand. Robert Downey Jr., sans Iron Man outfit. Tobey Maguire. Jeffrey Katzenberg. And so on 鈥� they鈥檝e all paid the $40,000 price for the VIP ticket allowing them to cram into Clooney鈥檚 undoubtedly superpendous Studio City pad. (Originally, the event was to be at DreamWorks CEO Katzenberg鈥檚 house. But it鈥檚 being renovated, and the work鈥檚 not done. Nice to know that even a billionaire can鈥檛 get plumbers to work on schedule.)
Full-price tickets will raise only about $6 million of the $15 million organizers expect from the event. The rest will come from small donations averaging $23 paid by entrants in a raffle for two seats with Clooney and Obama. The offer was worded like this: 鈥淔or a chance to hang out with President Obama at George Clooney鈥檚 house, donate $3 or whatever you can to be automatically entered to win.鈥�
Fifty finalists in this contest have already been identified and run through background checks. The two winners will be announced at some point prior to hors d鈥檕euvres. Both get to bring a guest. So, not too late to cozy up and try to arrange a date!
But here鈥檚 the question: Does hanging out with the Hollywood glitterati make Obama look cool? Or does it make him look like a snob who doesn鈥檛 understand the problems of people like you?
The Obama reelection team believes the former, of course. They鈥檝e promoted the event heavily via emails to supporters. The president鈥檚 political team has long believed that his savoir faire is a selling point 鈥� that鈥檚 why he appeared on Jimmy Fallon to 鈥渟low jam the news.鈥�
That鈥檚 why they鈥檝e passed around clips of him singing a few bars of Obama singing 鈥淟et鈥檚 Stay Together鈥� by Al Green. And so on.
But Republicans aren鈥檛 ceding this ground. They鈥檝e continued to try to frame Obama as the 鈥渃elebrity-in-chief,鈥� someone more interested in chatting up Barbra then figuring out how to lower the unemployment rate. Plus, they say the president is just after show biz bucks.
A Republican National Committee depicts Thursday night's event as 鈥淭he Celebrity-in-Chief Fundraises with Celebrities,鈥� and notes that the dinner will be studded with big names. The word 鈥淗ollywood鈥� figures prominently in the release 鈥� they must have poll-tested it and found that Hollywood evokes a negative image of la-la liberals among Republican voters, at the least.
It is possible that associating the president with movie stars energizes some portion of the GOP base. It might also make him appear out-of-touch at a time when the economy is still struggling and jobs are issue number one.
It might also be an attempt to address Romney鈥檚 empathy gap. In a recent Washington Post/ABC poll, 49 percent of respondents said that Obama 鈥渂etter understands the economic problems the people in the country are having.鈥� Only 37 percent said the same thing about Mitt Romney.
Still, Republicans tried to portray Obama as an out-of-touch celeb in 2008, and he won anyway. It remains hard to see how it helps Romney to highlight that his opponent is having dinner with George Clooney 鈥� someone whose approval ratings probably equal Obama鈥檚 and Romney鈥檚, combined.
