The president’s agenda next week includes seven fundraisers, leaving him only two days to hold two meetings with top policy deputies on the Ebola crisis and the advancing jihadi army in Iraq.
However, the fund-raising drive will aid his top domestic priority — keeping a Democratic majority in the Senate after the November election.
This year, Obama isn’t welcome on the campaign trail because his poll are dragging down Democrats’ ratings. Instead, he’s helping progressives by raising millions of dollars from wealthy donors in the financial, fashion and entertainment sectors.
He’ll use his two days in D.C. to meet with top deputies about the Ebola epidemic on Monday, Oct. 6, and to meet with Pentagon officials on Wednesday, Oct. 8.
The meetings could showcase the president as a reliable leader in a time of crisis, and perhaps offset the political damage being caused by the public’s worry about the Ebola outbreak in Dallas, Texas.
To maximize favorable publicity on Wednesday, Obama will drive over the Potomac river to meet with his military officials in the Pentagon. That public travel should boost the chance of favorable coverage on the evening news.
His fundraisers will take him up to New York and Connecticut on Tuesday, and out to Los Angeles and San Francisco from Thursday to Friday.
The fundraisers include one Monday event in Washington D.C., plus at least two in New York, one in Greenwich., Conn., one in Los Angeles, plus two in San Francisco.
However, he’s also freed up time on Monday to MC a campaign-style event at the White House that is meant to tout his regulation of Wall Street. His deputies describe the extra regulation as “reform.”
That campaign-style event will come one day before his fund-raiser in New York’s financial sector.
He also headlines an event for veterans on Sunday, when he will deliver remarks at the American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial dedication.
During his six-year tenure, Obama has frequently and graphically highlighted the burdens facing wounded veterans.