Obama Donor Support Cooling

Donor support for President Barack Obama has fallen off a cliff compared to 2008 and although Democrats still plan to vote for him their support has cooled dramatically, the Weekly Standard reported.

In 2008, more than 550,000 gave more than $200 to Barack Obama, which was the longest list of individual donors ever seen in American politics, the Weekly Standard said. But now, citing a BuzzFeed analysis of campaign finance data, the Weekly Standard said that 88 percent of the people who gave $200 or more to Obama in 2008 — 537,806 people — have not yet contributed that amount this year.

“Where’s the change I can believe in?” Lisa Pike, a 55-year-old from Williamsburg, Va., told Buzzfeed. She donated $658 in 2008 but won’t give anything this year, she told the website. “I wish he was the socialist they accused him of being. I wish we had the tons of change that would justify the right freaking out. I wish him well — I don’t dislike him personally — but I’m disappointed that he’s not the change-agent I had hoped for.”

Interviews with dozens of the donors show that Democrats will still vote for Obama but their support has cooled along with their economic circumstances.

“The interviews and the data are the substance of an ‘enthusiasm gap’ spurred by the distance between the promise of the campaign and the reality of governing, one that has begun to deepen Democratic gloom about this November’s election,” the Weekly Standard wrote.