Obama Campaigns With Expensive Books

How they’re spending some of those millions.

U.S. President Barack Obama holds up his plan for jobs during a campaign rally in Delray, Florida October 23, 2012. Image by Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

Barack Obama’s newest campaign prop, a glossy set of policy promises called “Blueprint for America’s Future,” will be going out to millions of voters in swing states, and at no small cost.

A Republican printing vendor puts the estimated cost of printing the complete set of 3.5 million 20-page, color booklets at more than $2 million, the price of putting to paper Obama’s campaign trail lines on job creation, dealing with the deficit, and handling entitlement programs. The campaign released it early Tuesday morning in response to bipartisan complaints that the president had not laid out an agenda for the next four years.

The hefty sum is the rough the equivalent of a weekly TV ad buy in a moderately-sized swing state, and may be an indication that the campaign is well past the point of diminishing marginal returns in those massive television buys.

Asked whether the sum would take away from television spending, Obama press secretary Ben LaBolt said it wouldn’t, and declined to reveal the total the campaign is spending to print the packets.

“But we certainly won’t be getting two bonuses in the middle of the campaign.” he added, dinging the Romney campaign for providing more than $400,000 in bonuses to top aides over the last two months.