For $35,800, Obama Is the Only Constant

By HELENE COOPER
NYT

AND so, it turns out, not all $35,800-a-plate fund-raisers are created equal.

With the campaign season under way, President Obama has begun the battle of raising the millions he needs to be re-elected. For those with deep pockets whose hearts bleed blue, it is fund-raiser time.

Time to strap on the Christian Louboutins and stand for hours in Secret Service security sweeps. Time to listen as vaguely familiar-looking White House officials expound about how the president has this election in the bag. If, that is, donors would please just open up their checkbooks.

But donors, beware. There are the $35,800-a-ticket fund-raisers, and then there are the $35,800-a-ticket fund-raisers. The distance between a Presidio Heights villa overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco at sunset and a packed hall at a Masonic Temple with bad air-conditioning is a long one.

(More here.)