Last month, I covered President Obama’s West Coast campaign kick-off. Here are some photos I took and the story I wrote:
To me she’s still House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
San Francisco politics are not nearly as much fun to cover now that the spectacle that is Gavin Newsom has abandoned us for the Lt. Gov’s office.
NFL Hall of Famer Jerry Rice pumps up the crowd at President Obama’s first public fundraiser in California for the 2012 re-election campaign.
Nice bling, Jerry
Would a Muslim Kenyan bring such an enormous American flag to his fundraiser? I think not, Glenn. I think not.
If I had my notebook with me, I could tell you who this performer is. Alas I cannot. It starts with a G.
The 2,500-person venue was sold out. Those poor suckers who don’t work for the media paid between $25 and $10,000 per ticket. They probably make a living wage, though, so hey. Trade-offs.
David Plouffe, political genius, blah blah blah
President Obama “Some things have changed since the last election. I’m older and grayer…”
Random lady in the crowd: “You’re still fine!”
Obama: prolonged laughter
Pause/ serious face so the weight of his words can sink in
That black blob in the lower right-hand corner is a cowboy hat worn by a giant man sitting right in front of the press area. Yes, a cowboy hat ruined half my shots at an Obama fundraiser in San Francisco. Universe, you have a sick sense of humor.
SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) — President Obama touted his administration’s accomplishments Wednesday night and urged about 2,500 boisterous supporters to “finish what they started” in 2008 at a sold-out fundraising event in San Francisco that was part of the start of his West Coast reelection effort.
The audience at the Masonic Center auditorium booed, cheered, and joked with the president as he touched on topics including Wall Street reform, education, scientific research funding, alternative energy investment, and the nation’s debt.
He also mentioned he was older and grayer than during the previous election, prompting a woman in the audience to call out, “You’re still fine!”
The speech elicited several standing ovations — particularly when Obama discussed the 2010 health care reform law, and then again when he said the government needed to eliminate tax breaks for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans.
“Because of you we’ve been able to make great progress over these past two years, but that progress can’t make us content,” Obama told the crowd. “It should remind us that change, yes, it’s possible. But we’ve got to finish what we started.”
The speech was the president’s third stop and second fundraising effort during a 21-hour trip to the Bay Area today and Wednesday that also included a virtual town hall at Facebook’s headquarters in Palo Alto.
Prior to speaking at the Masonic Auditorium, Obama attended a private dinner that cost attendees $35,800 each, a Democratic official said. The dinner was held at the Pacific Heights home of Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff, according to reports.
Obama is also attending a similarly priced breakfast event this morning at the St. Regis Hotel in San Francisco before heading down to Los Angeles for more fundraising, the official said. The Masonic Center’s audience members paid between $25 and $10,000 per ticket.
Despite the friendly crowd — which included House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, and Reps. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, and John Garamendi, D-Walnut Creek — Obama seemed to be trying to regain some of the enthusiasm of his 2008 campaign.
He announced he would be running his reelection campaign from Chicago — the first time a reelection effort hasn’t been based in Washington, he said — and poked fun at his supporters from 2008 who have apparently become disenchanted with him.
“They say, ‘How come he compromised on this or that? He should have done it that way.’ Everybody’s a political consultant,” Obama joked. “‘I’m sure if he had done it that way, we could have gotten health care done in two weeks.’”
Several speakers appeared before Obama, including NFL Hall of Famer Jerry Rice, and encouraged those in attendance to respond affirmatively to the Obama 2012 campaign slogan: “Are you in?”
(Originally published April 21, 2011)
