This is an excerpt from The New York Times – The warning came from David Plouffe, President Obama’s top political adviser: The Koch brothers and Republican “super PACs” have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to defeat Mr. Obama, he told a dozen wealthy Democrats gathered in a Silicon Valley office suite. Do not believe what you read about all the money the president will raise himself, Mr. Plouffe urged them. He needs your help.
With the general election campaign just a few months away, Mr. Obama’s allies are under growing pressure to raise money rapidly for Democratic-leaning independent groups, warning his supporters that the huge cash advantage mustered by Republican groups could prove decisive this fall, overwhelming Mr. Obama despite his own formidable fund-raising apparatus.
Early indications are that the Democratic super PACs are facing an uphill climb. While Mr. Obama’s decision last month to endorse the super PACs’ fund-raising — a reversal of his longstanding opposition to campaign spending by independent groups — has made potential donors more receptive to Priorities USA Action and similar groups, few so far have written the kind of six- and seven-figure checks that Republican super PACs are collecting.
But it leaves them far behind American Crossroads, the leading Republican super PAC, which took in $51 million in 2011 and expects to eventually raise $240 million. Charles and David Koch, the billionaire conservative oilmen, expect to raise another $200 million for other groups opposing Mr. Obama. The disparity leaves the president largely reliant on the tens of millions he is raising for his own campaign to counter an expected onslaught of negative advertising.
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