It appears President Barack Obama will be back in the Bay Area for another fundraising swing on Monday, July 23.

“It is happening but no details yet,” an Obama bundler from the Bay Area said today; a campaign spokeswoman said she “can’t confirm anything for this event yet.”

At the rate he’s been returning here, this won’t be his last trip before November, either. He was here early last month for luncheon in San Francisco’s famed Julia Morgan Ballroom; two weeks earlier, he’d done an exclusive Atherton dinner fundraiser, a rally-type fundraiser in Redwood City, and a breakfast with deep-pocketed Asian American/Pacific Islander supporters in San Jose.

Back in February, the president raised funds with an exclusive dinner at the San Francisco home of novelist Robert Mailer Anderson and a larger rally-style event at the Nob Hill Masonic Auditorium.

In October, it was a luncheon at San Francisco’s W Hotel. In September, he’d held fundraisers at the Woodside home of Symantec chairman John Thompson and the Atherton home of Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, as well as a town-hall meeting at LinkedIn’s Mountain View headquarters. And in April 2011, he did one, two, three fundraisers in San Francisco.

So if I’m counting correctly, this month’s visit to the Bay Area will be his fifth in the past year, and his 11th since taking office.

The Chronicle’s Carla Marinucci was inside President Obama’s fundraising luncheon today in San Francisco. Here’s her report, verbatim:

The very elegant wood paneled Julia Morgan Ballroom, considered a neoclassic architectural gem in the historic Merchants Exchange building, was filled with 27 tables of 10 guests each.
The White House official count was 250, but we were told by organizers that the demand for the event — sold out — was big and they wanted to squeeze in a few more. The majority of those paid $5,000 each to attend, but tickets went up to $7,500 for photo to $50,000 for “table captain.”

Among those in attendance: prominent San Francisco real estate developer Clint Reilly – a former Democratic strategist who also owns the historic Merchant Exchange building where the fundraiser is taking place. His wife, Janet, who heads the board of directors for the Golden Gate Bridge, was also present.
Lloyd Dean, chair of Cytori Theraputics and Obama bundler and Silicon Valley insider Wade Randlett among other guests.

California Governor Jerry Brown is also here.

Outside the Merchant Exchange building, there was a variety of vocal protesters, what looked to be a few hundred. They included about 50 from the Bay Area Tea Party Patriots, and another group some protesting Obama’s crackdown on medical marijuana dispensaries, and (no kidding) anti-circumcision protesters.
And there were another two dozen from the Center for Biological Diversity — some dressed as polar bears, protesting Shell Oil’s drilling in the Arctic.

(Lots more, after the jump…)
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Senate Republicans today ensured there would be no vote on the Paycheck Fairness Act, a bill pushed by the Obama Administration as a policy priority – and now a Democratic campaign rallying point.

The cloture vote was 52-47, short of the 60 votes needed to end debate and bring the bill to a straight up-or-down vote.

Census data showed women still made only 77 cents on the male dollar in 2008. This bill would have let employees disclose salary information to co-workers despite workplace rules forbidding this, in order to expose wage disparities. Employers would have been required to show that any such disparities are based on genuine business requirements and related to specific details of the job that aren’t based on gender; it also would’ve prohibited retaliation against those who raise wage-parity issues, provided resources to help women develop negotiating skills, and bring more research into lingering causes of male-female wage disparities.

From President Barack Obama:

“This afternoon, Senate Republicans refused to allow an up-or-down vote on the Paycheck Fairness Act, a commonsense piece of legislation that would strengthen the Equal Pay Act and give women more tools to fight pay discrimination. It is incredibly disappointing that in this make-or-break moment for the middle class, Senate Republicans put partisan politics ahead of American women and their families. Despite the progress that has been made over the years, women continue to earn substantially less than men for performing the same work. My Administration will continue to fight for a woman’s right for equal pay for equal work, as we rebuild our economy so that hard work pays off, responsibility is rewarded, and every American gets a fair shot to succeed.”

From U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.:

“Senate Republicans let down the women of America – and their families – by refusing to stand up for the basic principle of equal pay for equal work. But just as we didn’t quit when Republicans tried to defeat the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, we are not going to stop fighting until the Paycheck Fairness Act becomes the law of the land.”

From House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco:

“It’s 2012 but Republicans are stuck in the past; by blocking the Paycheck Fairness Act from receiving the simple vote it deserves, Senate Republicans have obstructed progress and prosperity for American families. They’ve joined House Republicans, who just last week voted unanimously against bringing the Paycheck Fairness Act to the floor and in doing so stood against fundamental fairness for America’s working women and families struggling to get by.

“Equal pay for equal work should be a pillar of our American recovery. In this time of great economic challenge, the 77 cents that women make for every dollar men make adds up to a real impact on working families.

“When we strengthen economic security for America’s women, we strengthen economic security for America’s families. That is why Democrats will continue to work on behalf of the opportunity for all Americans to participate equally in the prosperity of our country.”

Republicans say it was a political ploy.

From U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah:

“It doesn’t seem to matter to Senate Democrats that federal law already prevents gender-based pay discrimination. Nothing seems to get in the way of Democrats’ desire to push a message-tested bill that would be a boondoggle to trial lawyers with the cost borne by small businesses and job creators who would face mountains of litigation. Given how bad this bill is, I might almost say I’m glad this is just a politically-motivated show vote. But the reality is that the American people need relief from the Obama economy, not more votes designed for the President’s political base. With our economy as weak as it is, it’s time for the President and his Capitol Hill allies to stop the games and start working to stop the largest tax hike in American history that will hit every tax-paying American on January 1st.”

Back so soon? It’s like he was just here.

Oh, wait, President Obama was just here LAST week for an exclusive Atherton dinner fundraiser and a rally-type fundraiser in Redwood City on Wednesday evening and a small event Thursday morning with Asian American/Pacific Islander supporters in San Jose.

But he’ll be back again NEXT week for a fundraising luncheon Wednesday, June 6, in San Francisco’s Julia Morgan Ballroom, for which tickets cost $5,000 for general admission, $7,500 for admission plus a photo reception, or $50,000 to be a “table captain.”

The first $5,000 of a donation goes to the president’s re-election campaign, and anything above that goes to the Democratic National Committee for use in battleground states including Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Colorado, North Carolina, Virginia, Nevada, Wisconsin, Iowa and New Hampshire.

The Chronicle’s Carla Marinucci reports that campaign officials said another event, a “small roundtable,” is planned at Landmark at One Market Plaza.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters aboard Air Force One this morning that the president will go from San Francisco to Los Angeles for another campaign event that same day. On Thursday, he’ll hold an official, public event at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas before returning to Washington, D.C.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney today released a web video featuring his visit yesterday to bankrupt solar manufacturer Solyndra in Fremont:

Motorcade left Goldman residence in Atherton at 8:58 p.m. and rolled up El Camino Real to Redwood City, where POTUS arrived around 9:08 p.m. and entered Fox Theater to do some photos. Tickets for this event cost $250 for general admission; $1,000 for premium seating; or $7,500 for a seat plus a photo reception, with up to two additional guests in the photo at $2,500 each.

A campaign official said those in attendance at the Fox Theater included theater owners Eric Lochtefeld and Lori Lochtefeld; Redwood City Mayor Alicia Aguirre; and OFA CA Political Director Peggy Moore.

Press was held outside for about 15-20 minutes before entering through side door; sadly, we missed Ben Harper’s performance, but were treated to a significant chunk of the Tom Hanks-narrated video detailing the president’s first-term accomplishments. The audience cheered and applauded certain moments during the video, including Bill Clinton’s first appearance; passage of the Affordable Care Act, swearing in of Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and so on.

The film ended, the stage lights came up and… nothing for a few minutes. The crowd began chanting the president’s name; and then a call and response of “Fired up!” and “Ready to Go!”; and then “Four more years!” Still, nobody.

Finally, after several minutes, POTUS took the stage at 9:46 p.m. to a standing ovation.

“It is good to be back in California,” he said, recognizing and thanking Mayor Aguirre and Ben Harper.

“I’m here because your country needs your help. Four years ago we came together, we came together because we want to reclaim the basic bargain that built the most solid middle class and the most prosperous nation on earth,” he said.

He talked about the American Dream of having equal opportunity for education and prosperity, “no matter who you look like… no matter who you love.”

When he came to office, more and more people were seeing falling incomes, stagnant job growth, unaffordable education. “We built a house of cards, and it ended up collapsing in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.”

“Together, we fought our way back,” he said. When some said we should let Detroit go bankrtupt, we bet on American workers and innovators “and today the American auto industry is back on top of the world.”

“We’re not satisfied, we still have so much more to do” as so many remain jobless, their home mortgages underwater, first responders and teachers being laid off, he said. And that’s why this election is so important – because we can’t go back to the policies that didn’t work. “We have to move forward, not backwards.”

Productivity and hard work are at an all-time high, he said, but the problem is that it doesn’t lead most people to higher income, better jobs, better lives. What Mitt Romney doesn’t understand is that higher profits aren’t desirable “at the cost of massive layoffs” or “shipping jobs overseas” or “gutting all those investments that create a platform for everybody’s success.”

Republicans want deeper tax cuts while services for working people, infrastructure investments and regulations to keep Wall Street are gutted, he said. “That’s not new – the last guy did this,” he said, referring to President George W. Bush. Romney, he said, “is hoping you don’t remember what happened the last time we tried all that.”

“We don’t want government to solve all our problems – it shouldn’t try,” he said. Not every tax dollar can be spent wisely, he said, and not all people can be helped who doesn’t want to help themselves.

“But that’s different from telling the vast majority of hard-working Americans, ‘You’re on your own” when it comes to affording college, health care, a home, he said. “That’s not who we are, that’s not how America was built.”

It was collective investment that created the platform for enterprises like Google and Facebook to be born and thrive, the president said. “It made us all richer, it gave us all opportunity.”

“That’s why I’m running again for President of the United States of America.”

He said he wants to ensure that by this decades end, the nation once again is turning out more engineers and scientists than anywhere else on earth, with everyone able to afford a chance at education and prosperity.

“I’m going to make sure the next generation of technological innovation takes place right here in Silicon Valley” as well as in Cleveland, Pittsburgh and other cities, he said.

He said the nation’s dependence on foreign oil is at a 15-year low while fuel economy standards are better and clean energy production has doubled.

“For the first time in nine years, we have no Americans fighting in Iraq.” OBL is dead, Al Qaeda is on the run and the war in Afghanistan will be over by 2014. “America is safer and stronger and more respected around the world” thanks to service and sacrifice of service members, and the nation must repay them with appropriate veterans’ services.

Romney, he said, opposed ending Iraq war and doesn’t want to set a date for getting out of Afghanistan. “The nation we need to build is our own. We will end this war responsibly.”

“We’re going to pay down our debt in a way that is fair and responsible” after he inherited a trillion-dollar debt, he said.

“It takes a Democrat to fix these problems after they had run up the tab… so we’re going to finish the job.” That means streamlining government but also reforming tax code so “folks like me, only the wealthiest Americans, pay a little bit more.”

Romney, on the other hand, proposes tax cuts paid for by ordinary Americans, and further diminishment of institutions such as Social Security and Medicare, he said.

“On issue after issue, these guys want to go backwards,” the president said, but there’s no time to re-fight the need for health care reform, or abortion rights, or myriad other issues. It’s time to move forward to a country where everyone is treated with dignity and respect, in which you can’t drown out ordinary people by writing a $10 million check to support or oppose a campaign.

America is about unity, using everyone’s talents to move the nation forward, he said. This election is tough – more negative ads and undisclosed spending through the rise of SuperPACs, but “ultimately the outcome of this election is going to be up to you,” he said.

“Gays love you!” an audience member shouted out; the president didn’t break his rhetorical stride.

“When you decide its time for change to happen, guess what – change happens,” he said. “If people ask you what this campaign is about, tell them its still about hope, its still about change.”

“I still believe in you; I hope you still believe in me,” he said.

POTUS finished at 10:19 p.m. First song on the PA system as he left stage: Bruce Springsteen’s “We Take Care of Our Own.”

POTUS is headed to San Jose’s Fairmont Hotel, where he’ll spend the night and hold a campaign fundraiser with Asian American/Pacific Islander contributors tomorrow morning before leaving from Moffett Field around 10 a.m.

Among the guests at the Atherton fundraiser: Jan Brandt, vice chair emeritus of AOL; Dennis Troper, Google product management director; Tim Westergren, Pandora Media founder; and Susan Wojcicki, Google senior vice president.

Press was escorted into large outdoor tent at 7:55 p.m. POTUS and Doug Goldman entered at 7:58 p.m. Goldman said the property has been in his family since 1906, and he and his wife tried to welcome POTUS with Hawaiian decoration theme: floral arrangements, tablecloths, potted palms, hurricane lanterns, leis.

Goldman said the Recovery Act was a “brilliant” move, “saving more than 1 million jobs.” “It worked so well, some of your opponents are trying to take credit for it,” he said. Goldman also credited POTUS for ending Iraq war, killing OBL and voicing support for same-sex marriage, the latter of which drew the loudest cheers and applause from the audience.

POTUS began talking at 8:03 p.m., thanking the Goldmans for their hospitality: “They have had my back from the get-go, at a time when not many people knew who I was.”

He thanked David Crosby and Graham Nash (Stephen Stills is NOT in attendance): “It’s not every day you get Rock and Roll Hall of Famers strumming the guitar for you.” And he thanked actor Don Cheadle for his presence and support, but promised not to talk about their recent basketball game. Cheadle responded: “Thank you.”

“We’ve gone through three and a half of the toughest years in our lifetime,” the president said, with so many millions of jobs lost. “And we’ve still got a long way to go. In California and across the country there are still a lot of people who are hurting” from joblessness, risk of losing their homes, unaffordable education. “Our work is not done. The good news is, we’re beginning to steer that ship in the right direction.”

President Obama said he’s proud of his administration’s educational reforms, and said the nation must continue to make scientific advancements in order to remain globally competitive. “America continues to have the best workers and the best businesses in the world – we just have to get organized, and we’re starting to do that.”

The Affordable Care act has begun making health care more affordable and accessible; fuel economy standards for cars have been doubled; clean energy production has been doubled; and foreign oil imports are at a 15-year low, he said. The Iraq war is over and Afghanistan is ending, while the U.S. is regaining international respect.

“We continue to be the agenda setters,” he said, shaping international rules and norms on issues from terrorism to climate change to poverty. “People are paying attention, people are listening, and people are hungry for our leadership.”

But he needs another term to seal the deal, he said.

“This is a country full of decent people who believe in America and are generous and kind and tolerant,” the president said.

He talked about being at a high school graduation earlier this week in Joplin, Mo., which was ravaged by a tornado last year, and meeting a senior who lost both his parents, spent five weeks in physical rehab and had to care for his sister yet still is graduating and going on to college. “That captures who we are and what we’re about” as a nation, he said, leaving him “more determined than I was in 2008” to carry on.

Press was ushered out at 8:14 p.m., as he started a question and answer session with the audience. Press is now (8:35 p.m.) in vans, waiting for departure to Redwood City.

AF1 landed at Moffett Federal Airfield near Mountain View, Calif., a few minutes after its scheduled 6:10 p.m. arrival time, delayed a bit by some weather.

Greeting POTUS at the bottom of the stairs were:
- Col. Steven Butow, Commander 129th Rescue Wing, California Air National Gaurd
- Rep. Anna Eschoo (D-CA)
- Mike Kasperzak – Mayor, Mountain View, CA
- Tony Spitaleri – Mayor, Sunnyvale, CA
- Simon Pete Worden – Center Director, NASA Ames Research Center

POTUS then went to work a rope line of invited guests, Moffett/NASA/AMES staffers and such, before getting into the limo. Motorcade went south on Highway 101 then back up I-280 to Woodside Road exit into Atherton , arrived about 7:10 p.m. at Atherton home of Doug Goldman – software company founder, retired emergency physician, philanthropist and heir to the
Levi Strauss fortune – and his wife Lisa, who are hosting a $35,800-a-head dinner.

Press is holding in an outbuilding. Crosby, Stills & Nash will be performing for guests; we saw David Crosby walk by here a few minutes ago.

The San Bruno-based National Asian American Coalition is criticizing President Barack Obama for “raising funds from super-wealthy Asian Americans rather than campaigning and educating Asian American voters,” according to its news release today.

President Obama will be in Silicon Valley on Wednesday for three campaign fundraising events. First on the schedule is a campaign roundtable to support the Asian American/Pacific Islander community, at 4:30 p.m. in Palo Alto’s Garden Court Hotel; tickets for that cost $35,800 per person. (Ed. note – I see now that since first I reported on these events a few weeks ago, the time and date of this AAPI roundtable has been changed: It’s now at 8 a.m. Thursday, same place and ticket cost.)

The coalition – formerly known as the Mabuhay Alliance – sent a letter to the president today complaining about this. Based on its recent poll of Asian-American voters in Southern California, the coalition wants the president to make a play for those voters’ votes, not just a few rich people’s money.

“Asian Americans throughout the nation are probably close to equally divided as to who would make a better president between Romney and Obama,” coalition president and CEO Faith Bautista said in the news release. “In key swing states such as Nevada and Virginia, the absence of effective campaigning directed as Asian Americans could be fatal to the campaigns of the presidential candidates.”

“Nationally, there are eighteen million Asian Americans and almost six million in California. We therefore urge the President to not only effectively raise money in California and other states from affluent Asian Americans, but to actively and vigorously campaign at the grassroots level for the Asian American vote in California and the nation.”

The coalition wants the same from GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

According to its website, the coalition “is a HUD-approved nonprofit organization, with a focus on sustainable homeownership, Asian American diversity, consumer and small business development. NAAC advocates in the halls of Congress, in the California legislature and key federal legislators such as the Federal Reserve, FDIC, FTC, FCC and SEC and among today’s Fortune 500 corporations.” Its top-level sponsors include Wells Fargo, AT&T, JPMorganChase and Comerica Bank.

Rep. Barbara Lee went on the attack against Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney behalf of President Obama’s re-election campaign Tuesday, blasting Romney’s business record at Bain Capital.

Lee, D-Oakland, said America doesn’t need a president who got rich by putting the concerns of other wealthy investors over those of workers.

“Like President Obama, I believe we need to restore middle class security and create an economy built to last,” she said on a conference call with reporters. “Unfortunately, Mitt Romney’s economic policies would do even more damage to the middle class.”

Lee touted Obama’s Recovery Act economic stimulus, which she said focused upon infrastructure, research and development, clean energy and environmental programs to create 500,000 jobs in California; she said her district saw $2 billion invested for private-sector job growth.

She said she’s not attacking Romney’s right to run a business as he sees fit, but rather she’s questioning whether “the lessons and values Romney drew from his time as a buyout specialist” suit him to lead the nation’s economic recovery. “We don’t want an economy where workers are left behind.”

Lee’s teleconference is being packaged as part of the Obama campaign’s focus on the story of GST Steel of Kansas City. Bain bought a controlling interest in GST in 1993 and GST went bankrupt in 2001, two years after Romney left day-to-day management of Bain. But he didn’t formally leave the company until 2001, and he did so then under a retirement agreement in which he has shared in Bain’s corporate buyout and investment profits ever since.

Here’s the Obama campaign’s ad, launched yesterday:

(A six-minute version is available here.)

“President Obama and his billion-dollar attack machine are desperately trying to distract from their own failed record of wasteful spending and crony capitalism by launching an attack on free enterprise,” Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said yesterday. “The President should be more concerned with helping the twenty-three million Americans who are struggling for work. Mitt Romney has the experience and pro-growth plan to promote job creation and get our economy back on track.”