President Obama will host another fundraiser Monday for Senate Democrats, which will mark his 401st check-collecting event since taking office in 2009, the Washington Examiner reports.
Taking place in Martha's Vineyard, Mass., where Obama and his family are vacationing, the event is yet another marker of the dire straits the Democratic Party finds itself in and how political Obama has been as president. The Examiner noted that Obama has averaged one fundraiser every five days as president. With more than two years remaining in office, he's already surpassed predecessor George W. Bush, who hosted 328 over eight years:
The RNC Monday distributed a critical note of the president’s cash grab. "In just six years, Obama has held 72 more fundraisers than George W. Bush hosted in all eight years as president. In his first term alone, Obama set the record for attending more fundraisers than any other president in modern history," it said.
The president has endeared himself to the party for hosting the typically closed-door fundraisers. He has helped build out the bank accounts of Democratic Party operations at a time when some candidates don’t want to be seen with him — and never complained.
It has opened him up to criticism about spending too much time raising money, but insiders said that it is important to the president that he especially keep his party in control of the Senate.
Obama is worried about facing a Republican-controlled Senate and House for his final two years in office. Although the Democrats control the upper chamber now, prognosticators give the Republicans a good chance of winning back enough seats to take the Senate for the first time since 2006.