President Obama’s schedule for February 17th Seattle visit begins to take shape

A few days ago, White House offi­cials let it be known that Pres­i­dent Oba­ma would be stop­ping in Wash­ing­ton State again for a mid-Feb­ru­ary visit.

They did­n’t announce his itin­er­ary or sched­ule, but we fig­ured it would­n’t be long before the cam­paign began send­ing out invi­ta­tions to fundrais­ers with the Pres­i­dent. Yes­ter­day, the first invi­ta­tions began going out, for an event in down­town Belle­vue around midday.

Here are the details:

Please join Pres­i­dent Oba­ma at a Lunch with sup­port­ers like you in Bellevue.

What:
Oba­ma Vic­to­ry Fund 2012 — Lunch with Pres­i­dent Oba­ma & Spe­cial Per­for­mance by the Head and the Heart

Where:
Belle­vue Westin
600 Belle­vue Way NE
Belle­vue, Washington

When:
Fri­day, Feb­ru­ary 17, 2012
12:30 PM

Space is Limited

The min­i­mum required to get in the door is $1,000. For just $4,000 more, you can have your pic­ture tak­en with the Pres­i­dent at a pho­to recep­tion. For a grand total of $6,000, you can get into the pho­to recep­tion with a friend.

Or, for $10,000, you can buy up a table at the event.

There is a spe­cial $250 rate for Young Democ­rats, but even that reduced rate may be beyond the means of those it is intend­ed to benefit.

(Tuition in this state keeps going up, as Democ­rats cur­rent­ly attend­ing Wash­ing­ton’s pub­lic uni­ver­si­ties and col­leges can attest).

Pri­or to speak­ing at the lun­cheon, the Pres­i­dent will be attend­ing an invi­ta­tion-only brunch with even more gen­er­ous donors. His cam­paign holds a lot of those kinds of events dur­ing any giv­en month — most at pri­vate residences.

As far as we know, no events have yet been announced in Seat­tle itself.

We’ll let you know if any are.

For secu­ri­ty rea­sons, the Secret Ser­vice nev­er divulges trip logis­tics or noti­fies the news media which routes the Pres­i­den­t’s motor­cade will take dur­ing a vis­it. How­ev­er, if his­to­ry is any indi­ca­tion, it might be a good idea to avoid I‑5 and SR 520 dur­ing mid­morn­ing and midafter­noon on Fri­day, Feb­ru­ary 17th. Those high­ways will like­ly be shut down while the Pres­i­dent goes to and from Boe­ing Field.

We won­der, though: if the Pres­i­dent and his entourage take SR 520, will they need to pay the bridge toll? Emer­gency vehi­cles are exempt if on offi­cial busi­ness — but what about The Beast? And the press vans?