Obama Comes To Houston For Fundraisers

[babylonsister]

I guess he was here last night?


Obama Comes To Houston For Fundraisers
By Mary Benton

POSTED: 5:07 pm CDT July 31, 2008
UPDATED: 5:19 pm CDT July 31, 2008


"I've never had that experience before. I've never had to turn people down with checks who want to contribute," veteran political fundraiser and Houston attorney Richard Mithoff told KPRC Local 2.

After making a campaign stop in Iowa earlier Thursday, Obama is scheduled to fly to Houston for the private fundraisers Thursday night.

At the River Oaks home belonging to Mithoff, Obama will shake hands and pose with more than 200 people who paid a minimum of $2,300 to get in.

Later in the evening, Obama will attend a second fundraiser, which will be an intimate dinner for 30 top contributors in the Memorial-area home of a Houston socialite.

The Obama campaign declined to say how much money will be raised at the two events.

Texas Democrats said his visit will generate more than campaign cash, it will also ignite voter enthusiasm for other candidates who are on the November ballot.

"I like him. I like his family, what he stands for and I've never seen anyone generate this kind of enthusiasm," said Mithoff

more...

http://www.click2houston.com/news/17054827/detail.html

[PDittie]

1. Quite a bit more favorable than the Chronic

Alan Bernstein sneered and snarled:

Barack Obama collected more than $1.5 million in campaign funding Thursday night in two Houston neighborhoods built by oil and natural gas profits while telling his audiences that America needs to liberate itself from those fuels.

Picture this: Standing on a platform just above the water level of a lighted indoor pool at a Memorial home, Obama said the nation needs to develop wind and solar energy and other alternative sources. He spoke to about 55 paying guests at candlelit, round dinner tables under skylights in the 18,000-square-foot home of John Thrash, chief of a natural gas infrastructure company, and wife Becca Cason Thrash. County appraisal district records list the home's market value at about $5.5 million.

It gets worse (including the commentary from the locals, and the newfangled comment rating system installed just this week at the newspaper's website):

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5918755.html

[merci_me]

2. I can't see the comments.

I've been logging in off and on all day, trying to see the comments and it seems to take forever to load and then it says it's done and still nothing.

I knew by 3:30pm, certainly someone must have posted a comment! Maybe it's something about the new rating system that is causing my problem. I haven't checked in this week, so I didn't know they had a new rating system. Did you have to change your login info after the system was updated?

[PDittie]

3. I had to disable my adblocking software

I got the same thing (a blank page) until I did so.

[johncoby2]

4. that giant sucking sound...........

Is the money coming out of Texas.....

[crispini]

5. At least he's putting staff in the state

more than anyone else has done in recent memory.

[Lithos]

6. Yeah...

Dean is putting more money and staff into Texas than MacAwful did with his "focused" state strategy. Could be better, but it's a lot more than what we had.

God I want Cornyn to lose.

L-

[sonias]

7. This time I think the sucking money out is going to pay off

I'm sure that the people of Texas are contributing more money to the national campaign than is being spent in Texas; but it's for the common good. Once we gain back the White House and build better majorities in Congress things will get better for all of us.

That's a different kind of ATM than the one we had before that never even trickled down on us at all.

Obama has a state-wide campaign manager and he's got at least 15 paid staff members. There is a coordinated effort. We have to do our part and prove we got ground game.

Come on Texas!

Sonia