Obamas power through ambitious fundraising spree
Continuing on an ambitious fundraising spree for 2014 congressional candidates, President Obama will visit his hometown Chicago on Wednesday night to speak at a reception for the House Democrats' campaign arm, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
The DCCC fundraiser marks one of at least six the president has committed to participating in, and he's promised the same to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. With a close eye on the House, where Democrats need to win 17 seats to regain the majority, his schedule this year contrasts markedly from the 2010 midterms, for which he attended just three events for the two organizations.
Mr. Obama looks likely to top off the evening with a good night's sleep: He's slated to lay his head at his Windy City home, where CBS News' resident stats guru Mark Knoller says the president has spent only 16 nights since taking office, over the course of nine visits. It's a stark dichotomy from the way his predecessor, George W. Bush, used his pre-White House home: Bush spent all or part of 490 days at his Texas ranch over 77 visits there during his eight years in office.
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- A year after Obama "evolved" on marriage, gains for gay rights
Federal financial disclosure forms released this month show the Obamas owe between $500,000 and $1 million on a 30-year mortgage on the home.
First lady Michelle Obama is doing her fundraising part too, but without the no-place-like-home ending. She's on tap to speak Wednesday at fundraisers in Boston and New York City.
The first - a campaign fundraiser for Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., who's seeking the Senate seat left vacant by Secretary of State John Kerry - suggests the first family doesn't want to see a reprise of the 2009 special election to fill the late Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy's seat: Republican Scott Brown beat Democrat Martha Coakley with 52 percent of the vote. Immediately after her loss, Coakley was criticized for taking her opponent for granted and coasting into the special election.
While in Boston, Mrs. Obama will also visit victims injured in the Boston Marathon bombings.
Her second fundraiser indicates a shift in the administration's political tides, and a nod to an issue that's likely to help shape the president's legacy. Mrs. Obama is scheduled to join NBA player Jason Collins - who earlier this month became the first athlete in the four dominant professional sports to announce that he's gay - at a Democratic National Committee event in New York City for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Leadership Council.
Now fundraising off the issue, the president just over a year ago had just declared his support for same-sex marriage. In a May 2012 interview, he said he believed same-sex couples should be granted the right to marry, but added it's a decision best left to the states.
