President Obama, who fell behind GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney in fundraising for the first time in May, is making impassioned pleas to his wealthiest benefactors to open their wallets, but the money just isn’t flowing like it used to.
The Washington Post reports:
Leaked details of a plaintive phone call from President Obama to some of his biggest donors this weekend offered a rare and revealing look into the typically private rituals of big-dollar campaign fundraising. …
In the conference call made late Friday from a special campaign phone on Air Force One, a recording of which was obtained by the Daily Beast, Obama bemoaned the anonymous super PAC donations flowing to his Republican opponent, Mitt Romney.
"If things continue as they have so far, I’ll be the first sitting president in modern history to be outspent in his reelection campaign," he said, according to the report.
Obama’s fundraising woes are evident elsewhere. In the key battleground state of Pennsylvania, Obama is lagging far behind his 2008 fundraising numbers in Philadelphia.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports:
Recent reports submitted to the Federal Election Commission show that, as of May 31, Obama's principal fund - Obama for America - had raised $2.84 million from individual donors in the eight-county area.
That was well more than Romney's haul, but 31 percent less than the $4.1 million Obama had taken in at a comparable point in 2008.