The luncheon - which cost a minimum of $5,000 to attend and as much as $30,400 for VIP seating and a photo op with Obama - hauled in around $1 million for the DNC. A young advance man even escorted me to the bathroom (but was kind enough not to follow me in). As high-dollar donors mingled, reporters were confined to a "press holding area.” Though no physical barrier kept us away from donors, the arrangement made clear we weren’t to be roaming around. I spent most of my morning waiting on the president outside the ballroom where lunch would be served. Journalists from the Tribune and KUT News covered every aspect of the president's time in Austin, filing pieces on his higher education remarks (including a slideshow), Perry's request for more National Guard troops on the border, and White's cold-shoulder treatment, along with my own pool report from the DNC fundraiser at the Four Seasons Hotel. Asked late last month why he wouldn't be attending any of the president's events today, White said, "I'm available by phone." White, campaigning in Midland, Abilene and Alvarado, wasn't talking about Obama, either. But at events later in the day, Obama didn't mention Perry or his Democratic opponent in the governor's race, former Houston mayor Bill White. Ratcliffe of the Houston Chronicle reported the meeting lasted all of 34 seconds - and presented him with a letter asking for help on the border. Rick Perry greeted him briefly on the tarmac at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport - R.G. While he was joined all day by a throng of current and former Texas politicians, the president steered clear of Texas politics.
Later, he talked higher education on the campus of the University of Texas, one of the nation's largest public universities. At a fundraiser benefiting the Democratic National Committee, Obama took swipe after swipe at Republicans for putting politics ahead of policy. In his first trip to the Texas capital as president, Barack Obama served up little news but plenty of red meat for supporters in this decidedly Democratic part of the state.