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RNC attacks ‘celebrity in chief's' Hollywood fundraiser
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05/10/12 11:57 AM ET
The Republican National Committee isn’t looking to make friends in Hollywood with new attacks aimed at President Obama’s celebrity status and famous supporters on Thursday.
In an op-ed written for the influential conservative Red State blog, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus calls Obama the “celebrity in chief” and hammers him for using Hollywood actor George Clooney in a recent fundraising strategy. The op-ed also names names, citing many high-profile Obama supporters who are also Hollywood stars, including Oscar-winning documentary director Davis Guggenheim, and previous party guests Tim Burton and Johnny Depp.
“While he’s noshing with notables, courting celebrities and soliciting stars, the middle class is being squeezed,” Priebus writes.
“The Clooney fundraiser will be Obama’s 133rd fundraiser since declaring reelection,” Priebus wrote. “No president has held nearly as many fundraisers as President Obama. Then again, no modern president has had to paper over such a dismal record.”
The RNC and others are looking to counter Obama on his claim of staunch support for the middle class by highlighting his fame and the sheer amount of money he can raise from celebrity supporters. Both Obama and Mitt Romney, the likely GOP nominee, have positioned themselves as defenders of the middle class, with Obama regularly referring to the middle class in America as benefiting from his proposal to raise tax rates on the wealthy. And Democrats, including Obama, have traditionally done better in Hollywood than Republican candidates when it comes to opening checkbooks.
The Karl Rove-backed super-PAC American Crossroads released an attack ad in April that knocked Obama on a similar theme, playing off one of the most effective anti-Obama ads released by Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) 2008 campaign, which hit the then-Democratic nominee for being "the biggest celebrity in the world" but unready for leadership.
"Four years ago, America elected the biggest celebrity in the world and America got one cool president," the text of the Crossroads ad reads. "After four years of a celebrity president, is your life any better?"
A video clip also released by the RNC on Thursday digs up a 2006 interview of Obama, then a senator from Illinois, discussing his memoir and the need to reform campaign funding on C-SPAN’s Book TV. In the interview, Obama refers to his own “celebrity” status as “not entirely fair” but acknowledges that getting “a lot of attention” helps his fundraising efforts.
The RNC simply uploaded the clip without additional commentary.
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