Rich San Francisco backer of Media Matters and Democracy Alliance deeply upset with Obama, loyal SF media barred from fundraiser

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10/25/11, "Disappointed Democrats protest Obama's SF visit," San Francisco Chronicle, Carla Marinucci, Joe Garofoli

"In a powerful display of profound disappointment with President Obama, some of the Democratic Party's biggest donors gathered Tuesday - not inside his tony San Francisco fundraiser at the W Hotel, but outside on the sidewalks carrying signs in protest of his policies.

"I don't even know what he stands for," said Susie Tompkins Buell, a co-founder of the Esprit de Corps clothing company and one of the most generous Democratic Party donors in the nation - instrumental in backing such powerhouse progressive

• organizations as the Democracy Alliance and Media Matters.

Tompkins Buell, a longtime friend of Hillary Rodham Clinton who was among the former presidential candidate's biggest donors in 2008, has long played a starring role in San Francisco as a hostess for presidents, top legislators and world leaders at fundraisers to generate money for progressive campaign causes....

While the causes varied, many of the protesters at Third and Howard streets appeared to share a deep disappointment with Obama. While many said they were unprepared to support a Republican presidential candidate next year, some vowed to withhold money, volunteer time and manpower from Obama's campaign. Others considered sitting out the election altogether....

With Obama's approval ratings at an all-time low, the choice of such wealthy Democratic donors to reject the opportunity to dine with their president while protesting his policies underscores his increasingly tenuous relations with his political base....

At an event before Obama's appearance, state Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, said he was part of the "loyal opposition" to Obama and asked him to "reign in" the Department of Justice. He said federal prosecutors were "acting like thugs" by threatening medical marijuana dispensaries with criminal charges and forfeiture of property, moves some Bay Area pot clubs said could force them to close....

Local media - print, radio, television, internet - were barred from covering the fundraiser. But according to the pool report from the small group of national media given access, Obama told donors present that "I know times are tough ... but change is hard. Change takes time. But change is possible.""

via Lucianne