Last time I checked, the DNC didn’t pay the salary of the chef who cooks for the First Family. That’s a taxpayer supported position. But to this president, the White House chef is just another political asset to be deployed in The Great Swindle 2.0.
Campaign officials are working to broaden Obama’s network of “bundlers,” the well-connected rainmakers tasked with soliciting big checks from wealthy donors, while seeking to preserve the aura of a grass-roots movement by luring back the kind of small Internet donations that helped shatter fundraising records four years ago.
To do so, Obama and his aides are leveraging every asset available to a sitting president — from access to top West Wing officials to a possible food tasting with the White House chef.
This smacks of desperation. And it’s probably illegal — VP Al Gore got in trouble merely for making campaign fundraising phone calls from his office. Using the WH chef for fundraising goes a fair bit beyond that.
The West Wing charm offensive shows how Obama’s White House, which has eschewed Clinton-style traditions of feeding donor egos with Lincoln bedroom overnights and frequent phone calls from the president, is adjusting itself for a campaign that needs to overcome low approval ratings and a sour economy.
So let’s boost our approval rating by skirting the laws! Those are for the little people and our political enemies anyway.
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