Obama's $75,800 Merry-go-round

From Weazel Zippers:

The Obama campaign may constantly paint presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney as the corporate fat cat candidate, but a new fundraising invitation from the president may even break the biggest wallets on Wall Street.

For $75,800, donors can attend the Obama-backed 18th Annual National Women's Issues Conference in Washington. The price tag earns a donor the title of "chairman," special seating, a photo op and special recognition at the conference. [The Party Time blog notes that if you don’t have $75,800 to spare, for a mere $40,000, you can get the same package, provided you attend solo.]

It would actually be a violation of FEC rules to hand over all that dough over to the Obama campaign, so here's how the president's fundraising staff is breaking it down: Obama for America, the fund going directly to the president, will get $5,000 of the donation. Then, the Democratic National Committee will get significant $30,800 chunk. Finally, the campaign will donate varying amounts to Democratic parties in swing states like Ohio, Virginia, Colorado, Iowa and North Carolina.

The Party Time blog notes: The first $5,000 will go toward Obama for America, the President’s personal campaign committee. Half of that total will be credited toward the primary, half for the general election. This is the maximum an individual can give to a campaign.

In other words, $2500 will go toward the primary - even though no one is running against Obama in the primary, heh - and $2500 will go toward the general election. [$2500 is the maximum an individual can give toward the primary campaign and the general election.]

However, Fox News reported last month as follows:

The Obama campaign apparently doesn't want to provide big campaign cash to aid Democratic lawmakers running for re-election on Capitol Hill, a stark change from previous years... House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have tried to get $30 million from Obama's campaign arm, Obama for America (OFA), and also the Democratic National Committee (DNC), but the Obama team declined the request. [Obama wants the money all for himself.]...

The move is seen as the Obama campaign focusing on its main goal, keeping the president in office for a second term, but also possibly alienating some lawmakers or even jeopardizing his party's ability to gain or retain seats on the Hill.In a statement to confirmed Fox, Obama's top campaign manager Jim Mesinna said, "Our top priority and focus is to secure the electoral votes necessary to reelect the president."

Hence, $30,800 of the $75,800 that is reportedly going to the DNC, is in essence going to the Obama campaign. A merry-go-round, heh... [Whether the rest of the money that is going to Democratic parties in swing states will be used to finance the state candidates' campaigns or whether this money will also be redirected toward Obama's campaign is not clear. Heh....]

P.S. The AP reported on Saturday that Obama's re-election effort "enjoyed a 10-to-1 financial edge over Republican rival Mitt Romney last month", out-raising Romney "by millions as Obama stuffed more than $104 million into his campaign war chest."