Obama, Off and Running

Earlier this week, when talking about President Obama, George Bush's former political guru Karl Rove stated, "Republicans should be careful to not let him recover as he gears up for his 2012 re-election campaign." After President Obama's budget speech Wednesday, Rep. Paul Ryan, who has his own agenda when it comes to the nations budget, was quoted as saying after the speech, "What we heard today was not fiscal leadership from our Commander in Chief. What we heard today is a political broadside from our campaigner in chief."

Is this true? Did Obama lace up his campaign basketball shoes and start his run for re-election in his budget speech? It is starting to look that way to a lot of people.

President Obama has three fundraisers this week on his way to that magic number in money that he and this campaign are thriving for. The first ever "Billion Dollar War" chest. Starting with three fundraisers in Chicago on the the same day, campaign fundraising will take him to Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York in the coming weeks.

Obama raised $750 million in his last campaign, mostly in small amounts from an Internet operation that surpassed former presidential contender Governor Howard Dean's operation in sophistication and in the amount of new and young voters contacted, all  whose heads where filled with "Yes We Can."  

So far, the Republicans haven't even announced a candidate, although some have opened exploratory committees to see if they are electable. Some serious, like former Governors Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee, along with  former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich; some semi-serious like former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and maybe even another Bush -- former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. Throw in Trump, Palin and even Michelle Bachmann, and you have the cream of the crop of the Republicans who may run against the incumbent Obama. Frankly, as of yet, none can put up a serious challenge to Obama, especially if he hits that magic number of one billion dollars.

Is it too early to be talking about an election that is still two years away? Frankly yes, but we have to remember that in 2008, former Sen. John Edwards announced as far back as December 2006. Current Vice President Joe Biden announced his run as early as January 2007 and President Obama himself, a Junior Senator from Illinois with very little experience at the time, announced his own candidacy in February 2007.

Former President George Bush waited until late to announce his re-election bid -- May 2003 -- months after the democratic nominees were off and running. Obama announced his candidacy for president the earliest of any sitting president in history, 582 days before the presidential election. Let's hope he has his basketball shoes laced very tight, that's a very long time to campaign.