today’$ Obama fun fact$

President Barack Obama has become the first political $1 billion man.

He’s the first politician to take in that stratospheric number in donations during his political career, according to data collected by the Center for Responsive Politics.

His total take reached $1,017,892,305 in April, some nine years after he began his 2004 race for the Senate. Obama is widely expected to raise at least $300 million more before November.

President George W. Bush, in contrast, raised roughly $430 million despite running two complete presidential races and bearing the brunt of Democrats’ claims that he was a pawn of bankers, oil companies, coal magnates and defense contractors.

Bush’s total campaign spending was roughly $140 million more than his donations because he received matching federal funds in exchange for limiting his own private fundraising.

Obama, however, raised nearly all of his $1 billion after reversing his promise to follow suit…

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13 Comments!

  1. mojo
    Posted May 22, 2012 at 1:04 pm |

    Well, when you disable the verification system on your donations site to allow money from outside the US to be accepted, your cash donor base is a bit larger.

  2. DougM (jackassophobe)
    Posted May 22, 2012 at 1:10 pm |

    That’s just the money they admit to.

  3. Buzz
    Posted May 22, 2012 at 3:30 pm |

    Soros and Hollywood have plenty more where that came from….

  4. Fat Baxter
    Posted May 22, 2012 at 4:22 pm |

    I didn’t know Soros’ credit card had that high a limit. Must be nice to be uber-rich

  5. Merovign
    Posted May 22, 2012 at 4:40 pm |

    Including about $200 million in separate $10 donations under the names of random taxpayers and cartoon characters.

    Hey, is the FEC still legally crippled like right after the Dems took the senate and house?

  6. dick, not quite dead white guy
    Posted May 22, 2012 at 4:45 pm |

    after reversing his promise to follow suit…
    At least he’s consistent. Lies all the time.

  7. feethead
    Posted May 22, 2012 at 4:51 pm |

    It just proves once again the republicans are the party of the wealthy.

  8. SondraK, Queen of my domain
    Posted May 22, 2012 at 5:23 pm |

    ^ Yep. And that we’re racists.

  9. ZZMike
    Posted May 22, 2012 at 7:39 pm |

    I did read – somewhere else, probably – that he’s held more fundraisers than all the other presidents since Nixon, combined.

  10. Ironic in Denver
    Posted May 22, 2012 at 8:05 pm |

    ^ Does this make him the first 1% president, or the first 1% of the 1% president?

    Since he’s not the “pawn of bankers, oil companies, coal magnates and defense contractors,” who is he the trippled-down pawn of?

    (Please, don’t say “Michelle” or “Soros.” That’s just not very creative.)

    (By the way, has anyone noticed how much George Soros looks like Michael Douglas? Could there be something sinister going on there?)

  11. Hog Whitman
    Posted May 23, 2012 at 12:02 am |

    It’s only because of the basic human decency of America that George Soros is still alive and allowed to live here. There are several countries where he would be arrested on sight, tried, and shot on the spot.

    Those were the good old days.

  12. Claire: pink pig barbarian, etc
    Posted May 23, 2012 at 6:55 am |

    Yeah, but look how much ya can get back for your ‘investment.’

    See: Soylindra, et al…

  13. nightfly
    Posted May 23, 2012 at 9:10 am |

    Are we sure he’s a pawn? After all, pawns can eventually be promoted to queens, rooks, etc, and our Current Occupant has pretty much reached his ceiling.

    I think President En Passant is actually a “Vizier” – in old-school chess, there was no Queen, and that space was occupied by a sickly piece that could only move diagonally one square at a time. When the game hit Europe in the 14th or 15th c. they jazzed the old girl up.

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