President Obama's reelection campaign is out in full force

As the election season continues on with Republican primaries (here is our assessment of the winnowing in Iowa and of the shocking outcome in New Hampshire), their opponent and incumbent President, Mr Obama is beginning to get the engine going. President Obama proved himself an incredible campaigner in 2008 and there is absolutely no reason why he won't be able to capture that same campaign magic again this time around. However, conditions may or may not be the same as in 2008, so whether or not his campaign can prove to be so insurmountable has no bearing on his skill on running a campaign and excelling at it.

According to CBS Chicago a few days ago, President Obama touched down in Chicago, visited with his election campaign staff and went on to a number of fundraisers. The first was a little get-together on the campus of University of Illinois-Chicago where President Obama spoke to 800 upbeat supporters after making his way through a few dozen detractors from the Occupy Chicago movement. At this point I do think it is worth noting that CBS Chicago might gave President Obama a little bit of a pass with their coverage of the protesters. CBS Chicago stated that, "there were also a few dozen unfriendly faces outside the UIC Forum, as Occupy Chicago protesters voiced their displeasure with Obama and the Washington, D.C., status quo." Maybe the protesters are upset with the status quo of Washington, but they were protesting a President Obama rally. They were protesting President Obama and his policies at that moment, not some vague anti-status quo. But, then again, many of the Occupy protesters are made at je ne sais quoi and this might only be something that FOX news or Michele Bachmann would point out.

After his short little speech at UIC, President Obama went to where the big money was at, a dinner on the North Side of town at the house of media mogul, Fred Eychaner. The cost of the dinner was a whopping $35,800 per couple. Obviously, the 99% were not invited. It is unknown whether Occupy Chicago was outside of Mr. Eychaner's house eating their $2.09 Portillo's beef hot dogs. After the dinner President Obama had a soiree at Bear Stearns executive Stuart Taylor's home that was significantly less expensive, ranging from $7500 per person to $20,000 per couple. This invitation was extended to the 1.3%, leaving the remaining 98.7% of us out. You see how arbitrary numbers can be!

Beyond the glitzy dinners and galas at Universities though Mr. Obama has had some celebrity help in promoting his 2012 reelection campaign. MTV reports that Beyoncé has designed a tee shirt to sell for the campaign. That's it right there in the corner. Priced at $45 a pop the 99% can certainly afford it. Other people who have designed tee shirts for President Obama's campaign include Diddy, Russell Simmons, Jason Wu, Marc Jacobs and others. Among the others is Rag and Bone, and if their tee shirt sells for only $45 it might be time for fashonistas of all political stripes and creeds to pick one up. Neiman Marcus sells Rag & Bone plain white tee shirts for $80.

In addition to the President having a bevy of designers and celebrities who think they are designers putting together collections for him, President Obama is out their hobnobbing it up with some A-List supercouples like Brad and Angelina. While this visit was meant to highlight Angelina Jolie's work as a humanitarian, it can't hurt his popularity amongst voters.