Obama's Haul Spurs Concern About Faceless Donors

Sheldon Adelson is fine with Mitt Romney as nominee: Wall Street Journal

(NEWSER) - Sheldon Adelson is considering dropping another massive pile of cash into Newt Gingrich's super PAC—but he's doing it in part because he thinks it will help Mitt Romney, sources tell the Wall Street Journal . The billionaire casino mogul thinks that keeping Gingrich in the race will draw conservative voters away from Rick Santorum, clearing the way for Romney, who Adelson thinks has the best chance to beat President Obama. More»

That's more than double the proportion from 2007: analysis

(NEWSER) - President Obama continues to be successful raising money through small donations—and this time around, he's outpacing his campaign from four years ago. Last year, almost half of the money raised by the president's re-election campaign came from donors who gave $200 or less in total, a new report from the Campaign Finance Institute shows. In 2007, by comparison, just 22% of the $96.7 million he raised came from donations of $200 or less. In total, Obama raised $56.7 million from small donors last year, compared to the $38.1 million small donors contributed to all of his Republican opponents combined. More»

Fundraisers emboldened by Obama's endorsement

(NEWSER) - Now that President Obama has changed his tune on his super PAC , officials at Priorities USA Action have kicked into overdrive attempting to recruit deep-pocketed liberal donors who have largely been inactive since 2004. Ex-Obama aides held dozens of meetings with potential donors in LA, New York, and elsewhere yesterday, the New York Times reports, including a gaggle of executives from Wall Street and Silicon Valley. Fundraisers said they expected a boost because Obama had now made it clear he wanted the PAC to succeed. More»

There are plenty of reasons the president should be worried

(NEWSER) - Democrats, and many pundits, seem to believe that President Obama is rebounding, and will surely win re-election, but Jim Vandehei of Politico isn't buying it. Here's why he thinks the president should be sweating right now:

• The economy: The recent CBO report not only projected another trillion-dollar deficit, it predicted that unemployment will rise to 8.8% in the third quarter—something Obama's own advisers doubt he could recover from.

And Julianne Moore as Sarah Palin is still pretty scary: reactions

(NEWSER) - If you thought Julianne Moore's Sarah Palin was terrifying in the first Game Change teaser , wait until you see her in the full trailer, where she utters lines such as, "We have to win this thing. I so don’t want to go back to Alaska." Watch below, then read on for some reactions:

• This will clearly be "a Frankenstein-esque story about McCain’s staffers coming to regret the choice they made in bringing a little-known governor into the limelight," writes Jon Bershad at Mediaite . "The full trailer ... gives us even more famous actors getting their turn to stare in horror at the 'monster' they’ve created."