Obama, Clinton mining state's gold, not voters

Last week proved anew just how convincingly California has become the place where politicians go to rich people's homes to talk about the lives of less-fortunate people they rarely meet.

President Obama crossed into Southern California airspace on Thursday and promptly took part in two events with donors, one at the home of producer Chuck Lorre and the second hosted by entertainer Tyler Perry. Later he had dinner with Hollywood moguls Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg.

"Just dinner with friends," White House spokesman Eric Schultz said.

On Friday, after an interview for a comedian's podcast in Highland Park, Obama spoke in San Francisco at the annual meeting of the nation's mayors, then hit fundraisers on Nob Hill and at the Golden Gate Bridge-view home of Tom Steyer, the hedge-fund billionaire who spent $74 million to become the nation's most generous individual political donor in 2014. Then it was off to Palm Springs, where Obama had plenty of time for a couple of rounds of golf before Sunday's departure.

Hillary Rodham Clinton surfaced in Southern California on Friday, holding three fundraisers in wealthy environs during which she "continued talking about her commitment to being a champion for everyday Americans," her campaign said.

"California's just different. It's a money machine now, more than anything else," said Tom Epstein, a former Clinton administration political hand and now a vice president at Blue Shield of California, based in San Francisco. Epstein's experience dates to the days it wasn't. - Read More at latimes

Obama, Clinton mining state's gold, not voters

Hillary Clinton: 'America's long struggle with race is far from finished'