Seems like the only thing President Obama does more energetically — and to greater effect — than spike the bin Laden football is raise money.
Tons and tons of cold cash.
Indeed, one political scientist reports that Obama has held more personal fund-raisers in the past three-plus years than his five presidential predecessors did during their entire incumbencies — combined.
Brendan J. Doherty, who teaches at the US Naval Academy and is the author of the forthcoming “Rise of the President’s Permanent Campaign,” says that Obama has attended more personal fund-raisers than Presidents Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush combined — 130 vs. 94.
That’s not even the full story. When events for Democratic Party committees and individual candidates are factored in, the change is even more stark.
As of Wednesday evening, Obama had headlined 220 fund-raisers in total — more than the 173 equivalent GOP events George W. Bush hosted during his first term.
That’s quite the record for a man who rarely misses an opportunity to denounce “money in politics” — to say nothing of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, which merely said that corporations and unions had First Amendment rights to raise and spend money to influence political campaigns.
That decision helped create the super PACs that played a significant role during the GOP primary season — and it’s not at all unreasonable for the president’s campaign to be concerned about their impact during the general election.
The same goes for the president himself.
All things in moderation, however.
Obama essentially never quit campaigning after taking office in 2009 — and the ceaseless fund-raising is simply one manifestation of that.
Last week’s unseemly end-zone dance on the anniversary of bin Laden’s death at the hands of Navy SEALs may be the the most egregious example of draping policy outcomes with political bunting.
But the money matters, too.
No president in history has shaken the cardboard cup quite like Barack Obama.
It’s demeaning, and he should dial it back.



