President Obama To Speak In So. California Today

President Barack Obama is set to speak today at two fundraisers at Sony Studios and a third at a Brentwood restaurant benefiting his re-election campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

This will be Obama’s sixth trip to the Los Angeles area since taking office and fourth exclusively for fundraising.

Obama is set to arrive at Los Angeles International Airport aboard Air Force One this afternoon, then head to Sony Studios, first for a dinner at its commissary, where tickets cost $35,800, according to the Daily Variety political website Wilshire & Washington.

A second event will follow at the studio, with tickets priced at $250 for general admission, $2,500 for VIP seating and $100 for those under 40.

Obama will later speak at a fundraiser at the Tavern restaurant in Brentwood.

As is typical with presidential visits, protests are planned.

A group of Armenian Americans will be outside Sony Studios, calling upon Obama to honor his 2008 campaign pledge to appropriately recognize the Armenian Genocide and visit the Armenian Genocide Martyrs Memorial in Montebello, according to Rostom Sarkissian, a senior adviser to the Armenian National Committee of America-Western Region.

The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles will hold a rally outside the studio to remind Obama “of his pledge to update immigration laws,” said Jorge-Mario Calbrera, the group’s director of communications & public affairs.

Several groups, including the ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) and Code Pink, plan to protest federal budget cuts and U.S. involvement in the uprising in Libya, Ian Thompson of the ANSWER Coalition said.

The Los Angeles-area appearances are part of a West Coast swing by Obama, primarily for fundraising.

The trip began Wednesday in Northern California, where he participated in a town hall meeting on deficit reduction at the Palo Alto headquarters of the social networking website Facebook and spoke at two fundraisers in San Francisco.

Obama is scheduled to begin his day with a third fundraiser in San Francisco, then fly to Reno, Nev. for another deficit reduction town hall meeting.

“It looks like the president prefers campaigning over providing the leadership that America needs to get back on track,” California Republican Party communications director Mark Standriff told City News Service.

“We’ve got a campaign ATM in California that will see the president have six fundraisers in a 48-hour period where’s he estimated to take in over $4 million.

“It seems to me rather than ramp up his re-election campaign a year-and- a-half out… he should be back in Washington D.C., dealing with the issues that Californians and Americans all over the county are worried about.”

There was no response to emails sent to the White House and Democratic National Committee seeking comment.

Obama is set to leave Los Angeles Friday morning.