President Obama's reelection team has furnished donors with a list of more than 190 well-known Americans who the campaign hopes will stand in for the president during the year. It's a mix of confirmed surrogates and others who the campaign hopes will step up, says the Tennessean newspaper in Nashville, which published the leaked list.
In a written statement, the Obama campaign said the list mentions people it simply hopes will be on the president’s team as he faces a difficult re-election fight against a Republican to be named later.“This was a wish list of people and groups who may be asked to participate in a campaign event,” Addie Whisenant, a spokeswoman for the Obama campaign, said Wednesday.
“Not everyone on this list has been contacted or agreed to help the campaign. We’ve already received robust support and participation from surrogates across the country, and that will only ramp up in 2012.”
Among those named are Chelsea Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, George Clooney, Warren Buffett, Jay-Z, Tina Fey, Tom Hanks, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Alba, Whoopi Goldberg, Gwen Stefani and Olivia Wilde — mostly performers, with some politicos dropped in.