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Now Obama Has to Start Raising Money for His Library

And he might need $500M

By John Johnson,  Newser Staff

Posted Dec 1, 2012 8:45 AM CST | Updated Dec 1, 2012 9:15 AM CST

(Newser) – Big Democratic donors might not want to put away their checkbooks just yet. It's library time, Politico reports. Though he has yet to be sworn in for his second term, President Obama must soon start raising private money for his presidential library, and he'll likely need somewhere around $500 million. Friends will help make the calls, but the onus for this particular type of fundraising will fall on Obama himself, writes Jennifer Epstein.

A site still hasn't been selected, but a safe bet is that it will be the University of Chicago, where the president worked as a law professor. Also in the running is the University of Hawaii, where Obama's parents met and where his sister now works. Obama will probably have an official presence at both sites—home town vs. adopted home town—however it shakes out.

President Obama reads a book about his dog Bo in this 2011 file photo.
President Obama reads a book about his dog Bo in this 2011 file photo.   (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 35 comments
Izman15
Dec 1, 2012 9:53 PM CST
The idea of libraries needing to be full of physical books is kind of quaint. With the entire library of congress capable of being saved on a single 48 terabyte server and it's 16 multi core processors can allow for several hundred to over a thousand simultaneous users to access all for around 10 grand, 500 million seems a bad investment. The concept of building grand granite buildings with magnificent columns to hold the great published works of human history is a little silly it's like building a huge, expensive, modern battle ship it's job can be done much more effectively by cheaper destroyers and it's size servers no purpose other than to inflate the cost of production. I guess some things are built for aesthetic rather than practicality and I'm just going to have to accept that but I feel in the future these kind of endeavors are going to be considered silly and short sighted.
cornelison
Dec 1, 2012 8:58 PM CST
The name John Johnson was the giveaway for the theme of this article.  Someone must have flown him out to the Reagan and Bush libraries.  
1942
Dec 1, 2012 8:47 PM CST
In the slums of Chicago Mr. President if you want to make an impression on the poor. Raising money has never been a problem for you.  Congratulations.

 
presidential library • President Obama

 
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