Posted by Enough!, a resident of the Charleston Gardens neighborhood, on May 24, 2012 at 12:35 pm

If I had $38,500 to blow on a dinner, I would use it instead to help a failing educational program, or pay for a struggling family's utilities for a year, or help save the animal shelter. The impact would last a lot longer than the next morning's elimination.

Posted by Chase, a resident of Atherton, on May 24, 2012 at 1:17 pm

Enough: would that include the money this guy raked in, down the street from the President, in Atherton last night?

"House Speaker John Boehner has proven himself to be a heavyweight fundraiser on behalf of his party – to the tune of $70 million – since taking over the speaker’s gavel in January 2011.

Boehner’s total dwarfs that of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi

Read more on Newsmax.com: Boehner Raises $70 Million for Fellow Republicans"

Lat night: "Meanwhile, Republican House Speaker John Boehner will be in the Bay Area himself tonight at a fundraiser co-hosted by California Reps. Jeff Denham, Dan Lungren, Wally Herger and David Dreier. Tickets top out at $35,800 for the reception at Stacey and Tom Siebel's Woodside home. Web Link

Totals? who knows in this era of Citizens United.

"...I think when the final tallies are done on the presidential campaign, Mitt Romney will have raised more money from California than any other state," [conservative blogger Joe] Fleischman said."

Posted by moi, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on May 24, 2012 at 3:13 pm

Shoulda been wearing Levi's.

Not a dark suit.

Out of respect for the Goldmans.

Posted by musical, a resident of the Palo Verde neighborhood, on May 24, 2012 at 5:18 pm

Well, I'm wearing Levi's. Maybe $38k can feed more struggling families by spending it on getting the right people elected. In any case, it's not being flushed down the drain -- it's going to people with jobs in television and radio and other media, who have to feed their families too.

Posted by Chase, a resident of Atherton, on May 24, 2012 at 6:02 pm

musical

Bingo, ding ding, ding, on the nose....

The media companies will make record profits this year, and it's going to cost the rest of us that advertise immense pain to get our message out with the reduced availability of time and the increased costs.

Thanks heavens I don't advertise in the swing states this summer. Doing to be an ad buyers worst nightmare. Ugh.

Posted by GreatAuntie, a resident of Mountain View, on May 25, 2012 at 4:34 pm

Why is the President allowed to use Air Force One for fundraising purposes? Plus, what about all the cities' resources used to protect him when he is fundraising (it all adds up to major $$$$). He (or his party) should have to foot these bills. If they try to say that he was here on official business at the same time, then it should be prorated fairly. If the President spent as much time on solving the problems in the U.S. as he does on campaigning, the country would (might) be in a lot better shape. It seems that many politicians just think about elections and re-elections rather than actually working for our nation's survival and success in the future. Whatever happened to the concept of "statesman(woman)." We only seem to have "politicians" anymore, many of whom seem to come out financially richer than they did when they were first elected!

Posted by Hmmm, a resident of East Palo Alto, on May 25, 2012 at 5:36 pm

GreatAuntie - why didn't you check out the facts before asking your questions, since you took the time to post the questions? Do you not use Google because some of their execs are Demo heavyweights?

Web Link

I'll leave it to you & your math abilities to figure out how much time the POTUS spends at his commander in chief duties vs. campaigning. What sort of shape do you think he could optimally get us in 3.37 years into his presidency, in which he inherited scads of problems resulting from 8 years of Bush? I'd love to read your input.