President Obama is swinging through the Bay Area, money net in hand, for three fundraisers in about 14 hours. And no, as we pointed out, he won’t be interacting with anyone who doesn’t have a checkbook in hand. But you can still enjoy the President’s visit from afar — at least his sold-out “rally” at the Fox Theatre in Redwood City tonight. Here’s the Quasi-Official Obama California Fundraiser Drinking Game. Hoist your favorite beverage — free of charge!!! — should the following occur. (We will post the complete official transcript as soon as it is available for you to check your answers.) Over/under on the length of the speech: 19 minutes. Drink twice if Obama hits the under. 1. Drink once if someone from the ... Continue reading →
President Obama’s big $40,000 per person Asian American business round table fundraiser planned for Thursday has been moved from Palo Alto to downtown San Jose “for logistical purposes,” the campaign said today. The campaign itself didn’t announce the event’s move from the tony Palo Alto Garden Court Hotel in Palo Alto to the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose — even after there was some confusion in the Twittersphere with the round table pronounced “cancelled.” Palo Alto’s police department confirmed to us this morning that the event — limited to 20 business insiders – was indeed “cancelled.” The officers on duty would give us no reason nor say whether the decision came from Palo Alto PD or the Obama campaign. But we did hear eventually from ... Continue reading →
Portal A, the much-lauded ad creators who gave California the “Ed Lee’s 2 Legit 2 Quit” video is now taking on Big Tobacco with a new pro-Prop 29 ad. As Comrade Lagos has been reporting, that’s the prop that would add a $1 a pack tax on cigarettes primarily to fund tobacco-related illness and cancer research. The shtick here is bare-knuckled satire. A group of Californians talk to the camera about how they “support” Big Tobacco, which is the major funder — like put $40 miiiiiiiillion in your pipe and smoke it — of the anti-Prop 29 effort. Check out the overall-wearing farmer in the bit who says, “I support Big Tobacco because they killed my wife….and that’s one less mouth to feed.” Yeee- ouch! ... Continue reading →
Safeway has enough on its plate - market share under siege, tough union negotiations, rumors of a takeover - without a senior executive putting his foot halfway down his throat, at its annual shareholders' meeting no less. Vice President and General Counsel Robert Gordon thought he was cracking wise with a lame joke involving the Secret Service, President Obama and two Arkansas razorback hogs deemed an "excellent trade" for Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco. Among the less-than-laugh-out-loud-responses was a letter from members of the Bay Area congressional delegation, led by Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, whose district includes the Pleasanton company. It demanded an apology to Pelosi and Clinton, among other "corrective steps," for the "shocking lack ... Continue reading →
The candidate who listened to Jay-Z on his iPod morphed into a president intent on minding the iStore. In one moment, Obama talks about letting loose the power of innovation. In another, he demonizes the 1 percent that Silicon Valley’s movers and shakers occupy. His Justice Department has filed an antitrust suit against Apple. His Federal Trade Commission recently stepped up its antitrust probe into Google by hiring a high-profile outside litigator.Romney on the other hand has a pretty simple pitch: He won’t raise taxes and he won’t regulate the Internet. Period. His business acumen — the very thing the Obama campaign is hanging around his neck — doesn’t seem like such a bad thing to the jet set here, particularly as Democrats like Newark ... Continue reading →
With June and Gay Pride Month around the corner, the Obama for America campaign this morning announces the launch of its latest targeted voter outreach effort — “Obama Pride: LGBT Americans for Obama.” The campaign held a conference call for reporters with OFA LGBT National Vote Director Jamie Citron and National Campaign Co-Chair Joe Solmonese comes fast on the heels of the President’s historic pronouncement in support of same sex marriage earlier this month. And it aims to roll out a multi-pronged effort to appeal to LGBT voters marshaling themes of the general campaign — by reminding them of the “fairness” issue, i.e. Main Street V. Wall Street. Citron says that the new move signals that LGBT voters are “coming together, as a community, to ... Continue reading →
