WASHINGTON — President Obama yesterday flew to the land of maple trees and tapped Vermonters for more than $2 million in re-election campaign cash.
As the first sitting president to visit the state since Bill Clinton’s first term, Obama met with about 100 supporters in Burlington who paid $7,500 apiece for the event.
And a lunch/concert that drew 4,500 backers made this his largest 2012 fund-raiser to date.
Obama joked that back in 2008, “It was cool to say, ‘Oh, you know, I’m supporting this guy Obama.’ Now I’m old hat, I’m gray. But my determination is undiminished.
“In 2008,” he added, “I was running against a candidate [John McCain] who believed in climate change, believed in immigration reform, believed in reducing deficits in a balanced way . . . What we’ve witnessed lately is a fundamentally different vision of America and who we are.”
He later flew to Maine for a fund-raiser with 1,800 people and a dinner for heavy hitters shelling out more than $5,000 apiece at the Portland Museum of Art.