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President Barack Obama's 10th visit to Los Angeles was pretty much a slam dunk, thanks to an impressive donation tally from last night's star-studded fundraiser soiree at the home of George Clooney.
As Obama heads off to his next campaign stop in Reno this morning, he also managed to make some time to shoot some hoops, says KNX1070:
President Obama got some b-ball in this morning, at Cheviot Hills Rec Center & Rancho Park Golf Course. #obamajam
— KNX News 97.1 FM (@knxnews) May 11, 2012
Raising nearly $15 million for one dinner party could definitely put an incumbent in a good mood. Last night's party in the hills of Studio City included some big name (and big donor) attendees, like Barbra Streisand, Robert Downey Jr., Tobey Maguire, Jack Black, Billy Crystal, Salma Hayek and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, notes City News Service. Also there: The two average-Joe donors who won the big sweepstakes to hang out at Clooney's swinging bachelor pad for the event.
While a third of the funds raised came from the $40,000-per-plate tickets, the rest came from smaller donations, many just a few bucks thrown in the pot for the chance to win a ticket to attend, and the trip to Los Angeles. The lucky winners were Beth Topinka, a science teacher from Manalapan, N.J.; and Karen Blutcher, a St. Augustine, Fla., mother of a 5-year-old son with Down syndrome. Both brought their husbands -- Jerry Topinka and Patrick Blutcher -- to the dinner, which was catered by Wolfgang Puck.
The venue, incidentally, is the house "ER" built, pretty much; Clooney bought the place in 1995, and as the OC Register explains, took cameras on a tour recently. By the way, the house is equipped with lots of bars, and was where rocker Stevie Nicks once lived.
At Home with George Clooney
At the party, Obama spoke for 19 minutes, delivering "his standard stump speech."
Personally, we preferred the alterna-imaginary version of the night courtesy funny man Ben Hoffman, whose Twitter stream last night included some zingers like this:
Okay, so Obama did make some jokes apropos of the occasion, notes the AP:
Obama told the crowd that his famed "Hope" poster from the 2008 campaign was based on a photograph of Obama sitting next to Clooney when Obama was a U.S. senator. Clooney had been in Washington advocating on behalf of Darfur. "This is the first time that George Clooney has ever been photo-shopped out of a picture," Obama said. "Never happened before, never happen again."
All in all, when his 10:15 departure arrives, Obama will have spent a mere 16 hours in Los Angeles. It was his 10th visit since taking office, and his seventh made exclusively for fundraising.
