Mark Halperin notes in the latest TIME a key reason for President Obama’s decision to announce his re-election plans more than a year-and-a-half before the 2012 vote:
He has no Democratic challenger (so far), and none of the major Republicans jockeying to run against him have officially entered the race. But Obama’s strategists want to open local offices in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada to make contact with swing voters and make mischief with the GOP opposition. And with Obama’s online donations likely to lag behind their 2008 pace (his policies and the realities of White House life have turned off some liberal supporters), the President’s money gatherers need to start banking checks. The mind-boggling target: $1 billion.
Yep, that evil “big money” in politics.
