Obama, Assange, Buffett: Who would you eat with?

President Obama, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and billionaire investor Warren Buffett all announced separate contests in early June 2011 to dine with them. / CBS/AP

When it comes to eating with the rich and powerful, there's been a recent smorgasbord of opportunities, most available for a premium price.

President Obama and Julian Assange, founder of the document-dumping website WikiLeaks, announced two separate contests this week with the prize being a meal with the winners' favorite icon. Similarly, billionaire investor Warren Buffett closed an auction Friday for the opportunity to have lunch with him.

Mr. Obama's contest requires campaign supporters to donate a minimum of $5 to his re-election campaign, according to a post dated Wednesday on the campaign's website. Four winners will be selected at random. They will be flown to an undisclosed location to dine with the president at an unspecified date and put up for the night in a hotel.

(For the record, Mr. Obama's campaign valued dinner with the president at approximately $100.)

Lunch with Assange -- the highest bid at a converted amount of $3,031.97 as of this writing -- will raise money for WikiLeaks.

(In January, "60 Minutes" aired an interview where Julian Assange sat down with correspondent Steve Kroft.)

Video: Julian Assange, the "60 Minutes" interview
Julian Assange, the man behind WikiLeaks
Assange: WikiLeaks played "inside the rules"

The auction page on the site eBay says the meal will be at "one of London's finest restaurants" on July 2. Assange is fighting extradition to Sweden, which wants to prosecute him for sex crimes charges brought by two women. Assange denies that he committed the charges.

Special Section: WikiLeaks

The eight highest bidders win a seat at the table with Assange and Slavoj Zizek, a Slovenian Marxist philosopher appearing with Assange at a public forum after the lunch. The auction closes just after midnight Eastern time June 21.

As for Buffett, the anonymous winner paid $2,626,411 -- $2,345,678 to win the eBay auction plus $280,733 to claim bid as the auction site's highest for a charity item -- to dine with the Oracle of Omaha and bring along seven guests to impress.

[res-non-verba]

Assange has balls of steel... "Truth is treason in the Empire of lies." ~Ron Paul

Obama? The warmongering 'Peace Prize' recipient will be more systematically exposed. Cheers, Julian!

Buffet? He sure knows how to manipulate our corrupt system for his own gain.

[analyst1]

Why I voted to dine with Assange, which is my first choice:
Assange has a great burden on him, he is the champion of free speech, he risks his own life everyday, so that the rest of us, get transparency in the news (not the news that the government, corporations, and vested interests want us hear and see. There was traditional journalism; a so called special branch of news media, but Assange made it possible for everybody to be a journalist, you and me are without doubt a journalist if you publish a report, statement, news, video, or an idea you are "a journalist" if you actively engage on the internet. You may even win a nobel peace prize without journalism degree or without taking a single journalism class. My second choice would have been the great american icon Warren Buffett, but for now I would chose Barak Obama because he has to fulfill a lot of promises, and he too has a great burden on his shoulder for the economic recovery and world peace. And lastly I would dine with Warren Buffett because he is one of a kind wonderful man. ALL 3 PERSONS ARE GREAT PEOPLE.

[WeHappyFew]

Well clearly not Assange. Having seen him interviewed he is clearly suffering from some type of autism or attachment disorder an extremely clever high functioning sociopath. Although It might be interesting to see a point of view unclouded by received morality and conscience.

Obviously he's very ill now and reportedly unable to talk but I'd have paid anything I could for a meal with Christopher Hitchens.

Of the said line up, It would have to be Obama, just to get the skinny on life in the White House and his story about the decisions he's made as POTUS. Besides he's much easier on the eye than Buffet.

[skeezix06]

My first choice would be Buffet because I like his picture. Ky second choice would be Assange. I think my third choice would be Robert Reich. Given the fact that he keeps pushing republican policies, Obama wouldn't be on the list at all.

[jt92202]

I thought prostitution was illigal!!

[analyst1]

hee, hee, hee, hee, man you are so funnnn_y

[Montana5]

Three good reasons to eat a big breakfast and wait till dinner.

[justme2012]

You get what you pay for.

[mjlewis6]

I willingly offer to let them buy me lunch, chat up the known universe of topics, and ask them for a stipend to have enriched their lives with my opinion

[thomasvladimir]

obama and buffett known types,nothing new.
assange a fresh clean deal.