Obama, Dems Want $60M by End of June

And, simultaneously, not-so-rich ones

(NEWSER) - President Obama's 2012 machine is revving up early, and his campaign is using all its assets to pull in wealthy donors—while also courting the small Internet donors that fueled his grass-roots machine in 2008. The Washington Post takes a long look at the fundraising push, which has included everything from cocktail parties to one-on-ones with Valerie Jarrett to $44 bar get-togethers, depending on what group of donors is being pursued. And the campaign team isn't done yet: Future fundraisers will be even more creative, like the food tasting with the White House chef that's in the works. More»

Generous of him, yeah?

(NEWSER) - After a long day of fundraising yesterday in Chicago, Mitt Romney was ready for some of the city’s famous deep-dish pizza. But what to do with the leftovers? Seeing as how Chicago is also the home of President Obama’s reelection headquarters, the GOP hopeful decided to be generous and send the pizza over to the opposition. “Great deep dish at @ginoseast. Sending the extra slices to @barackobama and his Chicago HQ team,” Romney tweeted , along with the photo shown here. An Obama campaign source confirms to ABC News that the pies did actually arrive. More»

If NJ governor decides to run, reelection campaign wants to be ready

(NEWSER) - Despite the fact that Chris Christie has joked that committing suicide might be the only way to convince supporters he’s not running in 2012, President Obama’s campaign is still trying to get the dirt on the New Jersey governor. Sources tell the New York Post that Obama operatives are compiling a file of “opposition research” that could be used to damage Christie should he change his mind. More»

Peggy Noonan and David Brooks have different views on the 2012 race

(NEWSER) - A lot of political analysts considered this week to be the informal start of the 2012 presidential campaign, and two right-leaning columnists have polar opposite views on Barack Obama's prospects:

• David Brooks: "It doesn’t take a genius to see that Obama is very likely to be re-elected." He "hit the political sweet spot" with this week's budget speech, which was filled with "vague but well-intentioned policies." Brooks' ideal solution involves a combination of the Obama and Paul Ryan plans, but he sees that as politically impossible. Instead, "we’re going to have an election featuring these rival viewpoints, and Obama will win easily." Read his column in full at the New York Times .

WinTheFuture.com could go to RNC

(NEWSER) - President Obama has been talking a lot about the need to “win the future” lately. In fact, it sounds like a pretty good re-election campaign slogan, notes Roll Call . There's just one teensy-tiny issue: A conservative activist already owns WinTheFuture.com—and .org, .net, and every other WinTheFuture website. Glenn Pelikan of Portland, Ore., registered the domain names in 2007 after Newt Gingrich released a book called Winning the Future—and Pelikan had actually forgotten he owned them until Roll Call contacted him, the site reports. More»