First he landed at LAX, then he took a helicopter to Burbank, then he motorcaded to George Clooney's house.
Fiona Hutton and her family live three doors away. Beth Hilton and her son sold lemonade on the corner. See their photos in the gallery above.
After, he went over Laurel Canyon to the Beverly Hilton Hotel to stay the night.
See the photos. Add yours if you have some.
From City News Service:
President Barack Obama is at the Studio City home of actor George Clooney tonight for what is projected to be the most lucrative fundraiser ever for a U.S. presidential candidate -- an event expected to generate $15 million.
The president began his day in Washington, D.C., and flew on Air Force One to Seattle for a pair of campaign events. He arrived at Los Angeles International Airport at 6:15 p.m. for his 10th visit to the region since taking office, the seventh solely for political fundraising.
The presidential helicopter, Marine One, took Obama to Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, where he was greeted by Rep. Howard Berman, D-Van Nuys. The presidential motorcade went along Sherman Way, with throngs of spectators waving and taking pictures, then onto the Hollywood (170) Freeway, with Obama arriving at Clooney's home at 7:07 p.m. Obama, who has spoken at political fundraisers during all but his first visit to Southern California as president, is scheduled to spend the night in Beverly Hills and leave Friday morning for Reno, Nev.
A demonstration over the administration's policies on home-ownership issues was held tonight near Clooney's home. The protestors called on Obama to get aggressive about prosecuting banks and militating for principal reduction in mortgage payments, according to Peggy Mears of the Campaign for a Fair Settlement.
Barbra Streisand, Robert Downey Jr., Tobey Maguire, Jack Black, Billy Crystal, Salma Hayek and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa were among the 150 people who paid $40,000 each to attend the event, benefiting the Obama Victory Fund, with funds going to Obama for America, his re-election campaign, the Democratic National Committee and several state parties, a campaign source said.
Organizers told The Times they expect tonight's event to raise $15 million, an unprecedented sum for a single fundraiser. Attendees paid $40,000 a ticket price to attend. However, two-thirds of the projected haul was expected to come from contributions from tens of thousands of Americans who donated an average of $23 for a chance to win a ticket to the event.
Two winners were chosen -- Beth Topinka, a science teacher from Manalapan, N.J.; and Karen Blutcher, a St. Augustine, Fla., mother of a 5-year- old son with Down syndrome. Both winners will bring their husbands -- Jerry Topinka and Patrick Blutcher -- along to the dinner. The protest staged near Clooney's canyon home dwelled on a theme that many of the president's supporters frequently return to -- the perception that he has allowed banks to get away with misdeeds.
"Years after wrongdoing by the banks destroyed California's housing market, not a single banker has been prosecuted and the president has refused to dismiss the heads of Fannie and Freddie, who stands in the way of help for millions of Americans,'' Mears said. "It's time the president stood up for homeowners.''
There was no immediate response to a request for comment from the Obama campaign. Mears' group plans a series of protests at campaign events and fundraisers demanding that Obama act now to address the issue, she said. Campaign finance reform is also an area where some supporters feel Obama has failed to fulfill his 2008 campaign promises -- a complaint brought into focus for critics by the size of tonight's projected haul.
"We have been disappointed by his failure to follow through in helping rebuild the presidential public finance system,'' said Mary Boyle, vice president for communications of Common Cause, a nonprofit advocacy organization that describes itself as a watchdog against corruption.
In 2008, Obama became the first major party presidential nominee to opt out of the public financing system for the general election, which began with the 1976 campaign, correctly guessing he could raise more from the combination of small and large donors.
"He said he would like to work fix the system and that hasn't happened,'' Boyle told City News Service. Tonight's event is an example of how ``it costs an exorbitant amount of money to run for president of the United States,'' she said, complaining that ``we have elected officials ... constantly worrying about fundraising instead of worrying about the country's problems or their constituents' issues.''
