Obama Opens Tumblr Account, Visits Hollywood as Fundraising Tour Ramps Up

By Emma Koonse, Christian Post Reporter Tuesday, October 25, 2011

This week, President Barack Obama has continued his fundraising campaign tour, mingling with stars in Los Angeles and opening a blog account on Tumblr.

Obama met with actors Will Smith and Antonio Banderas, former basketball star Earvin “Magic” Johnson, and singer Melanie Griffith on Monday after a private dinner. The president and celebrities were guests in the home of James Lassiter, a Hollywood producer, where tickets to attend and chat with Obama were $35,800 each.

In addition to the campaign tour, Obama has opened a Tumblr account to help get the word out to people about their candidate.

“We’d like this Tumblr to be a huge collaborative storytelling effort-a place for people across the country to share what’s going on in our respective corners of it and how we’re getting involved in this campaign to keep making it better,” said a press release by campaign organizers.

The election is just over a year away, and once again the president’s campaign will rely on the web. At one point, Obama had the second-most followers on Twitter, totaling 56,000 users, and during the last election, had 1.3 million Facebook supporters.

After wrapping up a tour of Virginia last week, California is Obama’s biggest donor state. In Los Angeles alone, he has raised about $1 million in the past two fundraising quarters, AP has reported.

Speaking to attendees at the dinner event Monday, the president said, “Sometimes I think people forget how much has gotten done,” while urging supporters to back him once again this election season.

“People are crying out for action,” said the president describing the economic and political crisis in the U.S.

“The Republicans in Congress and the Republican candidates for president have made their agenda very clear,” said the president about the lawmakers who rejected his $447 jobs plan.

While in Las Vegas earlier Monday, Obama told about 240 donors, “This is the fight that we’re going to have right now, and I suspect this is the fight that we’re going to have to have over the next year.”