"Dinner with Barack II" Hits Twitter

The second sweepstakes for dinner with the President gets big play in the Twittersphere, but the names for the winners of the first sweepstakes are still a secret...
UPDATE: Today the President sent an e-mail about the dinner, and there was even more Twitter action
The "Dinner with Barack II" sweepstakes is getting big play on President Obama's official Twitter account today, which has 10,060,350 followers. The Tweet, above, appeared at around 9:00 AM. It's for the second sweepstakes run by Obama for America 2012 staff, which promises four lucky winners the chance to dine with President Obama. The sweepstakes opened with little fanfare earlier this month, and follows a major push for the original fundraising contest, "Dinner with Barack and Joe," launched in June. That also offered four lucky winners the chance to dine with President Obama--and Vice President Joe Biden. The push for the first contest included e-mails from President Obama, Biden, and Campaign staff.

This morning's Tweet was retweeted by more than 100 people. The link is to a donation page, which has a new graphic created for the dinner (above).

WHO ARE THE WINNERS?
Meantime, the names of the winners of the first dinner sweepstakes remain secret. The Campaign's Deputy Press Secretary, Katie Hogan told Obama Foodorama in an interview posted here on Sept. 2 that no date or place has been set for for the first dinner. At the time of the interview, Hogan said that while the winners had been selected, they hadn't been notified. She said she didn't know why. According to the Official Rules, the four winners were supposed to be "notified by phone or e-mail by July 10, 2011."

The names of the winners were also supposed to be made public on a page on the BarackObama.com website, according to the Official Rules, and posted at http://my.barackobama.com/dinnerwinners. But there are STILL no winners' names listed, and the link takes users to this donor page for "Dinner with Barack II."

Both dinners include airfare and and one night's stay at a hotel for winners. Campaign staff have given the "Dinner with Barack and Joe" package an "approximate retail value" of $1075, while Dinner II is pricier, at $1,150. (Above: An earlier graphic for the Dinner with Barack II sweepstakes)

Related: Click here for the links to all the posts about "Dinner with Barack and Joe."