Obama kicks off fundraising campaign for 2012 bid

US PRESIDENT Barack Obama told supporters in his hometown of Chicago that he needed their help to “finish the job” as he kicked off a massive fundraising campaign for his 2012 re-election bid.

“We’ve still got business to do. We are not finished,” Obama told a crowd of 2,300 donors gathered in a ballroom in the Windy City’s famed Navy Pier. “We’ve got to reclaim the American dream for all Americans.”

Obama is looking to fire up the grassroots support that underpinned his first historic bid for the White House in 2008. “That’s the change we still believe in.”

The three events taking place in Chicago were his first fundraisers since he officially launched his bid for a second term on April 4 and were expected to raise about $2 million.

Analysts predict Obama — who raised a record $750 million ahead of the 2008 election — will build a war chest of $1 billion this time around.

His appearances before the Democratic faithful came after he unveiled a $4 trillion deficit reduction drive and savaged Republican budget plans.

The debate over fiscal policy will prove critical in the upcoming budget battle and the presidential campaign. Obama sought to frame it as a “stark choice” between investing in the future or watching the country fall apart.

“Under [the Republican] vision, we can’t invest in roads and bridges and broadband and high-speed rail,” Obama said.

“We would be a nation of potholes, and our airports would be worse than places that we thought — that we used to call the Third World, but who are now investing in infrastructure.”

Republican plans to shrink the reach of government are “not a vision that’s impelled by the numbers” but a choice to give $1 trillion in tax breaks to the rich.

“If we apply some practical common sense to this, we can solve our fiscal challenges and still have the America that we believe in,” Obama said.

“That’s what this budget debate is going to be about. And that’s what the 2012 campaign is going to be about.”

Barring a dramatic turn, no major adversary from within his Democratic party is likely to challenge.

As for who might run from the Republicans, uncertainty reigns.

Former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty and Mitt Romney, ex-governor of Massachusetts, have taken the first official steps toward candidacy, while conservative former House speaker Newt Gingrich and even real estate mogul Donald Trump have hinted at challenging the Republican nomination.