Last month, Tina Daunt reported in the Hollywood Reporter that
Some of the president’s most ardent entertainment industry supporters quietly tell The Hollywood Reporter that while they realize he needs to deploy all of his weapons to compete with deep-pocketed Republican super PACs, they fear the increasing reliance on stars and celebrity contests could backfire with swing voters and mobilize the right.
. . . .
Reaction was particularly strong to the $40,000-a-plate dinner co-hosted June 14 by Sarah Jessica Parker and Vogue editorAnna Wintour with guests including Meryl Streep, Aretha Franklin and Bravo’s Andy Cohen. Critics say the tony, heavily promoted event — Parker sent an e-mail to supporters promising the evening would be “fabulous,” and Wintour posted a video online urging supporters to enter a lottery for two tickets — risked creating the impression of an elitist, out-of-touch candidate in a period of ongoing distress and growing economic inequality.
Two weeks earlier, Charlie Spiering counted 28 celebrity fundraisers that president had attended. And yesterday some folks were all a-flutter that Mr. Obama’s rival had attended three fundraisers on a “tony stretch of Long Island.”
Despite this media buzz, it’s important to note which candidate has attended more fundraisers in such tony locales — and with such high rollers.
UPDATE: Commenting on a fundraising appeal from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee raising alarms about “Mitt Romney’s high-priced fundraiser with one of the Koch brothers yesterday“, John Hinderaker observes that
Of course, reporters never pursue the rich people who attend Obama’s $50,000 fundraisers and ask them questions, hoping for answers from which they can excerpt something to make the Obama supporter look stupid.
UP-UPDATE
: Jennifer Rubin notes how eager various legacy media outlets are to describe the rich at a Romney fundraiser and wonders at their absence of such description at Obama gatherings:
I’m going to be charitable and assume that this type of bias is largely subconscious; a nonsense distinction between “good” (actors, musicians and artists) and “bad” (finance people) wealthy. There is something cool about Aretha Franklin and Meryl Streep shaking the cup for President Obama in the West Village, surrounded by other hopelessly cool, if slightly vapid, Hollywood types. It’s difficult to imagine major newspapers and wire services producing similar scene reports for Obama fundraisers. “Ms. Streep, after climbing from her chauffeur-driven Range Rover in a stunning Marc Jacobs dress, spoke of her concern for the growing economic divide in the United States.” Yeah, I didn’t think so.
Read the whole thing.
they fear the increasing reliance on stars and celebrity contests could backfire with swing voters and mobilize the right.
Hypothesis: this is due to the fact that a celebrity is all he really is himself. Like clings to like.