SAN FRANCISCO— According to media reports, Senator Obama came back to campaign on a high note after returning from vacation in Hawaii. Obama raised about $7.8 million in campaign funds in a span of three hours in San Francisco on Sunday, August 17.  People paid $28,500 a couple to attend a VIP dinner at the Fairmont Hotel. 

Obama’s previous San Francisco fundraiser, which was in April, had caused a bit of controversy when he told the audience that people in small towns in Pennsylvania had become “bitter” and that they “cling to guns or religion.”  At this fundraiser he shifted his focus to immigrants and spoke about his days at Occidental College in Southern California, where he had a Pakistani roommate.

Courtesy of travelpost.com

Obama also touched on some serious issues such as the economy and health care when, according to a YouTube video of the fundraiser, he said, “Everywhere you go, you meet a single mom who doesn’t have health care, even though she’s working two jobs or you talk to young people who have the grades, the will and the drive to go to college but can’t afford it.  Or you talk to a guy who had to pack up the equipment in his factory that he had worked on for 20 years and that his father had worked on 20 or 30 years before him because the plant was being shipped away.  Not only has he lost his job but he’s lost his sense of dignity and his sense of self-worth and he feels like maybe he’s a failure.  That’s what people are experiencing each and every day all across America.”

Obama left San Francisco after a successful night in order to continue his campaign but he did leave his supporters with strong words of encouragement.  According to published reports, Obama said, “I will win.  Don’t worry about that.”