Introducing Obama, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry said: "I asked Barack Obama what he wanted for his birthday. He said, `Indiana, Colorado and Virginia,"' said Kerry, referring to three potential swing states Obama hopes to win in the Nov. 4 election.
In a ballroom on the 33rd floor of a downtown skyscraper overlooking Boston Harbor, Obama was serenaded first by singer Harry Connick Jr. and his 10-year-old daughter, Kate, and then by the entire room in an animated rendition of "Happy Birthday."
About 850 people attended the birthday fundraiser, which cost between $1,000 and $4,600 per ticket. Among those, 250 also ate dinner with Obama - for $15,000 per ticket or $28,500 for a couple.
The Illinois senator received two gifts. The first was a Hawaiian shirt emblazoned with Red Sox symbols to wear on a vacation that begins later this week in Hawaii, where he was born. "As a White Sox fan, this hurts a little bit," Obama said.
But all was well when he opened the second present; it was a near-identical shirt with Chicago White Sox symbols on it.
