For months, the Obama-loving media have been carping and whining about all the money going to conservative Super PACs in the wake of the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling back in 2010.
Yet as you can see from the following segment on MSNBC's Martin Bashir show Thursday, the press are giddy over the prospect the president will raise up to $15 million at actor George Clooney's campaign event later this evening (video follows with transcript and commentary):
MARTIN BASHIR: The president as we’ve just said has landed in, on the west coast. He’s going to this fundraiser which is being hosted by George Clooney. They expect to raise anywhere between 12 and 15 million. I mean, I guess the president is hoping that this kind of effort is going to make up the difference because of Romney’s benefit through Super PACs and the power of those. Do you think it will these fundraisers?
JOY-ANN REID, GRIO.COM: Well, I think especially since the president has now come out in favor of gay marriage. I think that he has a lot better shot at solidifying what had been sort of somewhat tepid support from liberals. And Hollywood is full of nothing if not liberals. And these folks had, you know, they liked Obama. But other than Clooney, who’s been very enthusiastic about the president, there have been a lot of disappointment that he hadn’t said the words on gay marriage. Now that he has, you’re seeing this sort of springboard of enthusiasm coming out of Hollywood…
BASHIR: Right.
REID: …which could be very helpful to the campaign.
Interesting that no one suggested that this might have been the reason Obama "evolved" on this issue roughly 24 hours prior to Clooney's event.
So much for "enquiring minds." But I digress:
Readers are reminded that Bashir represents a so-called "news network." But I once again digress:
JOE WILLIAMS, POLITICO: Well, we’re talking about a very clear charisma gap here. I mean, talk about enthusiasm gap. I mean, charisma factors into enthusiasm, and one of the things that Joy-Ann kind of put her finger on here about the Hollywood fundraiser is you got a lot of celebrities out there. Matt Damon was one of them who expressed disappointment in President Obama’s evolution stance, and now he’s probably going to go all in. George Clooney has been a staunch supporter. So has a lot of the producers, David Geffen and so forth who take LGBT issues very, very seriously. So I think it’s a good move. It comes at the right time. He’s going to need something to inject fresh air and get some momentum going on a campaign that’s going to have to run on kind of a mixed economic record at best, but certainly this could give some energy and fresh life and people something to look forward to and get excited about.
BASHIR: Dana, Joe’s positive about that, but is there not the possibility that hobnobbing with these, you know, superlatively wealthy individuals can make the president perhaps seem a little out of touch with ordinary people?
Was Bashir injecting some balance into this discussion? Perish the thought:
DANA MILBANK, WASHINGTON POST: Well, of course that’s the danger, Martin, and inevitably you’re going to hear about the Hollywood liberal attack, but there are 15 million good reasons for Obama to do this.
[Audible laughter from Bashir and Williams]
MILBANK: Politics is all about money, and he’s got to go where the money is.
BASHIR: Indeed.
Indeed.
As such, it's not the money in politics that bothers liberal media members or they'd all be opposed to this Obama fundraiser Clooney is throwing which apparently is going to set a record for dollars brought in at one campaign event.
No, what offends them is that there are people who give to Republican candidates and conservative causes.
That's just got to be stopped because it's corrupting politics.
