“Lost” Pelosi Find Home Among Hollywood “Fringe”

September 27, 2011

With Obama Dragging Down Democrats Even in Deep Blue States, Pelosi Flees to Reliable Liberal Island to Raise Campaign Cash

Democrats are partying it up in Hollywood this week as Democrat Leader Nancy Pelosi follows up a pair of Monday Obama fundraisers with a swing through Hollywood tonight for a fundraising event featuring yet more celebrities on the liberal fringe.
Pelosi’s trip comes as Democrats and President Obama are having trouble placating their base, and even Democrats are holding on to their wallets out of frustration at their party’s job-destroying policies.
Meanwhile, President Obama continues to sink among voters even in deep blue states, falling below 50 percent approval in California, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. Hollywood appears to be one of the few bastions of support that Pelosi and Obama have left.

BACKGROUND

Democrats are partying it up in Hollywood this week as Democrat Leader Nancy Pelosi follows up a pair of Monday Obama fundraisers with a swing through Hollywood tonight for a fundraising event featuring yet more celebrities on the liberal fringe:

DEMOCRAT LEADER PELOSI RAISES CAMPAIGN CASH FOR DCCC WITH DIRECTOR J.J. ABRAMS: “House minority leader Nancy Pelosi will be the big draw at a Tuesday night fundraiser hosted by director J.J. Abrams and his wife, Katie McGrath. The event will be held on the rooftop of Abrams’ Santa Monica production studio Bad Robot, with all proceeds going to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.” (Tina Daunt, “As Obama Arrives in Hollywood, Showbiz Heavies Plan More Democrat Party Fundraisers,”The Hollywood Reporter, 9/25/2011)

AFTER OBAMA DOES HOLLYWOOD MONDAY: “President Obama may be coming to town Monday afternoon for a pair of fundraisers, but those events are just the start of a busy week for many of the Democrats’ major Hollywood donors. A series of gatherings in support of the party’s Congressional candidates also are planned.” (Tina Daunt, “As Obama Arrives in Hollywood, Showbiz Heavies Plan More Democrat Party Fundraisers,”The Hollywood Reporter, 9/25/2011)

Pelosi’s trip comes as Democrats and President Obama are having trouble placating their base, and even Democrats are holding on to their wallets out of frustration at their party’s job-destroying policies:

PAST DONORS HOLD ON TO WALLETS:

“CRACKS APPEAR IN OBAMA’S CHICAGO BASE”: “President Barack Obama’s Chicago-based re-election campaign has a hometown problem: the donors and volunteers who have lost interest after launching his run for the White House four years ago.”

“The glow of the epochal election of the nation’s first African-American president has faded amid a dramatic fall in the president’s popularity, a persistently lousy economy and an administration that has been less transformative than promised.” (Steven Strahler and Paul Merrion, “Cracks Appear in Obama’s Chicago Base,” Chicago Business, 9/26/2011)

LESS THAN 10 PERCENT OF OBAMA’S 2008 DONORS HAVE GIVEN TO HIS RE-ELECT: “Still, the composition of donors has revealed a stark gap in engagement from 2008. Of the estimated 3 million Americans who donated to Obama’s first election campaign, only 292,000 had returned to give again through June.” (Devin Dwyer, “Obama Campaign Hints at 1 Million Donors,” ABC News, 9/26/2011)

“SMALL DONORS SLOW TO RETURN TO THE OBAMA FOLD”: “For still others, high hopes that Mr. Obama would deliver a new kind of politics in his first term have been dashed by the emergence of something that, to them, more resembles politics as usual.

” ‘When I was pro-Obama in 2008, I was thinking of him as a leader who could face the challenges that we were tackling,’ said Adnan Alasadi, who works in behavioral health in Mesa, Ariz. Mr. Alasadi contributed repeatedly to Mr. Obama during his first campaign but says he will not give the president — or anyone else — any more money.

” ‘Now I am seeing him as just an opportunistic poslitician,’ Mr. Alasadi said.”(Nicholas Confessore, “Small Donors Are Slow to Return to the Obama Fold,” The New York Times, 9/24/2011)

OBAMA SUPPORT WITH DEMOCRAT BASE VOTERS SINKS:

PUBLIC POLICY POLLING IN NY-09 PRE-ELECTION: AMONG DEMOCRATS, OBAMA AT 46% APPROVAL, 38% DISAPPROVAL. (“Turner in Position for Huge Upset in NY-9,” Public Policy Polling, 9/11/2011)

NEW YORK TIMES/CBS NEWS POLL: OBAMA’S “SUPPORT IS ERODING AMONG ELEMENTS OF HIS BASE” AND INDYS ARE STILL STAYING AWAY: “President Obama’s support is eroding among elements of his base, and a yearlong effort to recapture the political center has failed to attract independent voters, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll, leaving him vulnerable at a moment when pessimism over the country’s direction is greater than at any other time since he took office.” (Jeff Zeleny and Megan Thee-Brenan, “Support for Obama Slips; Unease on 2012 Candidates,” The New York Times, 9/16/2011)

GALLUP: OBAMA DISAPPROVAL AMONG JEWISH VOTERS RISES TO 40%: “Four out of 10 Jewish Americans currently disapprove of Obama, according to polling data provided to POLITICO by Gallup, which has yet to post the numbers on its website.”(MJ Lee, “New Gallup: Obama Slips with Jews,” Politico, 9/15/2011)

MORE GALLUP: OBAMA IS “SLIPPING EVERYWHERE”: “But it’s not that Jewish support has slipped owing to something unique to Jews. Their support is declining along with everyone else’s in a bad economy where he’s having trouble delivering on his agenda.” (Marc Caputo, “Gallup: Obama Doesn’t Have a Jewish Problem Per Se. He’s Slipping Everywhere,” Miami Herald, 9/19/2011)

Meanwhile, President Obama continues to sink among voters even in deep blue states, falling below 50 percent approval in California, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. Hollywood appears to be one of the few bastions of support that Pelosi and Obama have left:

ZERO HOUSE DEMS HAVE SIGNED ON AS CO-SPONSORS TO OBAMA’S JOBS BILL.(H.R. 12, Accessed 9/27/2011)

INDEPENDENTS FLEEING THE DEMOCRATS: “Even as the terms of the political debate in Washington, in the eyes of many Democrats, have moved steadily to the right, the electorate is increasingly likely to see itself as ideologically closer to the Republican Party than to Democrats. …

“There’s another difference as well. In 2005, Republicans’ and Democrats’ views of their own parties dovetailed with the perceptions of the electorate as a whole. Today, while voters as a whole agree with Republicans’ evaluation of their party as conservative, they disagree with Democrats, who on average see their party as moderate rather than liberal. So when Independents, who see themselves as modestly right of center, say that Democrats are too liberal, average Democrats can’t imagine what they’re talking about.” (William Galston, “Left Behind? Losing Center Democrats,” The New Republic, 9/26/2011)

FIELD POLL: OBAMA AT 46% APPROVAL IN CALIFORNIA, 44% DISAPPROVAL:(Gabriella Schwarz, “Poll: Obama’s Drop Out West,” CNN, 9/14/2011)

PPP: OBAMA AT 49% APPROVAL, 45% APPROVAL IN MASSACHUSETTS: “You know Barack Obama’s going through a rough spot when his approval rating is under 50% even in Massachusetts. 49% of voters there now approve of the job he’s doing to 45% who disapprove. That represents a 17 point drop on the margin from early June when he was at 58/37 in the state.” (“Massachusetts President Numbers,” Public Policy Polling, 9/21/2011)

OBAMA SINKS TO 48% IN CONNECTICUT: (Daniela Altimari, “Obama’s Job Approval Drops Sharply in Connecticut,” The Hartford Courant, 9/16/2011)

RHODE ISLAND POLL: ONLY 38% SAY THEY WILL VOTE TO RE-ELECT OBAMA, 35% TO VOTE AGAINST: (“Exclusive Poll: President has Lost Nearly Half His Support in RI,” Go Local Prov, 9/22/2011)