For a day, the presidential contest was almost all about money — money to wage the presidential contest, that is. Mitt Romney promised to help Americans earn more, but he and President Barack Obama focused mostly on private fundraisers and big checks to fuel their 40-day sprint to Election Day.
Obama courted donors in Washington on Friday, while his Republican challenger did the same in Philadelphia and Boston, both men trading swing-state rallies for fundraising in places unlikely to play a significant role in the election of the next president on Nov. 6.
Romney admitted as much during a fundraiser at Philadelphia’s exclusive Union League Club. The former Massachusetts governor said it would surprise everyone if he carried Pennsylvania, a state that hasn’t supported a Republican presidential candidate in nearly a quarter century.
“We really would shock people if early in the evening of Nov. 6 it looked like Pennsylvania was going to come our way and actually did come our way. That can happen,” Romney told about 200 donors who paid between $2,500 and $50,000 to hear his remarks.
“My priority is job creation and growing incomes,” Romney continued. “My priority is not trying to punish people who have been successful.”
The former businessman’s remarks came at the first of three private fundraisers sandwiched around a midday rally. Obama kept close to Washington with a schedule of three fundraisers of his own.
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After a midafternoon fundraiser at a downtown Washington hotel, Obama joined about 90 people who paid $20,000 apiece to attend an event hosted by Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va. The setting was Rockefeller’s home, one of Washington’s grandest mansions sitting behind a long, winding driveway near leafy Rock Creek Park.
Obama said that Democrats tend to either think “the sky is falling” or “everything is great.”
“This is going to be a competitive race all the way down to the wire,” Obama said. “I don’t want anybody to feel we’re done six weeks out.”
As the candidates asked for cash, their campaigns prepared for next week’s high-stakes meeting on the debate stage — the first of three presidential debates and perhaps Romney’s best chance to reverse the recent Obama gains suggested by opinion polls.
Both men worked international affairs into their politicking Friday with separate telephone calls to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Romney criticized Obama for not meeting with Netanyahu this week during his visit to the United Nations, where the prime minister declared the world has only until next summer to stop Iran from building a nuclear bomb. Aides to both candidates did not mention that dire declaration in their reports of the calls.
But money was largely the focus of the day.
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