Obama to supporters: I understand your frustration
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President Barack Obama smiles while speaking at the Nob Hill Masonic Center in San Francisco, Wednesday, April 20, 2011. Stepping away from Washington's contentious fiscal debates, President Barack Obama is making a West Coast trip aimed at building support for his deficit-reduction plans and raising money for his re-election campaign.
SAN FRANCISCO, Ca. — Easing into his 2012 campaign, President Barack Obama is telling his supporters he understands their frustration over the compromises he's made with Republicans, while preparing them for more to come.
It's a timely warning given the upcoming vote on raising the debt ceiling and the ongoing debate over long-term deficit reduction, both issues Obama says can only be solved if Republicans and Democrats work together. But further compromises could prove a tough pill to swallow for many of Obama's liberal backers, who have grown tired of watching the president cede ground to the GOP on spending cuts and tax breaks for the wealthy.
During a raucous fundraiser focused on young people in San Francisco Wednesday night, Obama said his supporters are not alone in their frustration.
"There are times when I've felt the same way you do. It's a big, complicated, messy democracy," he said. "We knew this wouldn't be easy."
Obama's three-day West Coast swing — his most extensive travel since announcing his re-election bid — offered a glimpse of how Obama will seek to reenergize the independents and first-time voters who carried him to victory in 2008. Obama's rallying cry is that more work needs to be done in order to make the vision of America he promised a reality, and he is the only one who can see those hopes through.
"It is going to take more than a couple of years," Obama said. "It's going to take us more than one term to finish everything that we need to do."
Obama senior adviser David Plouffe offered a more sobering political forecast to the hundreds of young supporters gathered for the nighttime rally.
"This is going to be a close campaign," Plouffe said. "The one thing we better assume is that it's going to be closer than the last one."
After a third fundraiser here Thursday morning, Obama was to make stops in Reno, Nev., and Los Angeles. The president was scheduled to return to Washington Friday afternoon.
Obama was coupling his fundraising efforts with a series of town hall meetings aimed at selling his plan for cutting deficit spending directly to a wary public.
"The deficit is real, our debt is real. We've got to do something about it. But how we do it is going to make a huge difference," Obama said during a smaller, high-dollar fundraiser Wednesday night.
The president and Republicans have both offered plans for bringing down the deficit, but vast differences exist over how to do so. The president is calling for $4 trillion in deficit reduction over 12 years, through a combination of spending cuts and tax hikes on the wealthy, while House Republicans have passed a plan that would reduce the deficit by nearly $6 trillion in a decade, in part by overhauling Medicare and Medicaid.
The president and Republicans have accused each other of pitching "radical" plans.
"I think it's fair to say that their vision is radical," Obama told a town hall gathering Wednesday at the headquarters of Facebook, the huge social network company.
Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, returned fire. "What's radical is piling up $9 trillion more in debt on the backs of our kids and grandkids," he said, echoing a GOP criticism that Obama's plan would accomplish too little.
Obama's mixing of politics and policy on this West Coast swing is a harbinger of things to come as he balances campaigning with the duties of the presidency.
White House aides insist the president is only involved in the reelection campaign from a distance at this point. But with fundraisers and campaign-style town hall meetings quickly becoming staples in his schedule, it's clear Obama is already in re-election mode.
Apr 22, 2011 at 9:58 a.m.
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lol. Don't fret your afternoon fix is sure to come save the day.
Apr 22, 2011 at 9:05 a.m.
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exactly my point raf. youve seen me post here for several years now, do you REALLY think im not aware of corporations involved in health care?? if you were as astute as you think you are youd have also seen my post that im in favor of single payer health care...on numerous occasions. how mnay corps would be involved in that process?? your thought process is to blinded or stunted to put 2 and 2 togethor. you take parts of my comments and use them to spin it at me. youve done it before by cutting parts of quotes and using those to your benefits. let me brake this down in the simplest terms i can. profits=good. UNTAXED profits=bad. health care for all citizens=good. profiting on the sick and dieing=disgusting. this should generally be a humankind thought process and it saddens me for those who dont see it that way. i hope you get this, but either way im done with you. you have become a troll.
Apr 22, 2011 at 5:21 a.m.
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mantracker: I wondered the same thing--$38,500 to go hear him rant about raising taxes is kind of funny. You are right--he could help the deficit. Good post. Nice editing, gazette people.
Apr 22, 2011 at 2:56 a.m.
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Is it just me, or are the comments coming in spanish now. Messed up. I did find out that the government taxes gas at 45 cents on the dollar. They could do something about this. And by the way guys at my job figured out that if we bought a hybrid car, at 41000 dollars, it would take 14 years to pay it off in the saving. Sorry, I am going camping with my family and where ever else I want to go in my trailblazer, and I will budget for it. I will not let the gas prices control me from doing things that you will never get back. If any one of us were allowed to sit in on a congress meeting, we might all change our toons. did anyone read about the 2 hybrid cars that caught on fire and destroyed a garage. That sounds like green to me.
Apr 21, 2011 at 11:41 p.m.
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kid if you think there is no "corporate" in health care you need to recheck your information; hospital conglomerates and insurance companies to name only two.
Apr 21, 2011 at 8:59 p.m.
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This man-child POTUS is a disgrace. As he jets around from party to fundraiser, he asks the peasants to buy hybrids. Do you honestly think he'd ever be caught dead driving one? He was laughing a week ago about the rising gas prices. His response on what he could do about it..."you need to buy a hybrid". Last year his suggestion was to make sure our tires are properly inflated. You just can't make this stuff up! 2012 can't come fast enough.
Apr 21, 2011 at 7:59 p.m.
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yer a tool raf. seriously. there is no point in discussing anything with you. you will NEVER acknowledge a valid point cuz yer to consumed with trying to spin it. my point was about untaxed corporate greed and you turn it around to my general statement of no profit on the sick. if you cant see the difference im sorry...for you. if you want to label me a hypocrite feel free. i will continue to label you as a beneficiary of an extra chromosome.
Apr 21, 2011 at 7:46 p.m.
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Kid speaking of hypocrites, you yourself are against profits in healthcare. So don't start this no one is against profits talk, when we all know you don't mean it.
Apr 21, 2011 at 2:29 p.m.
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Time to buy more silver and gold.
Apr 21, 2011 at 1:06 p.m.
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ha. thanx for the info;) estudio mucho para aprenderlo...pero soy despacio:)
Apr 21, 2011 at 12:12 p.m.
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raf: there are hypocrites on both sides, you know this. you are just deflecting. no one is against profit. theyre against untaxed profit.
vato: su proceso del pensamiento queda su nombre...loco
Apr 21, 2011 at 11:32 a.m.
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Kid the ones that watch MSNBC, owned by GE (they paid zero taxes) seem to have no issues with it at all.
Apr 21, 2011 at 11:22 a.m.
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kaysbrew i think you are misinformed. liberals dont 'hate corporate profit'. liberals hate UNTAXED corporate profit.
Apr 21, 2011 at 10:47 a.m.
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Donal Trump for President!! We have a new Perot to root for!
Apr 21, 2011 at 10:40 a.m.
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grandys618, I thought you said government was to inept to do anything right.
Why do you think this government is so capable, as to pull your conspiracy theory off?
Apr 21, 2011 at 9:45 a.m.
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Oh, drop the dramatics. Our country is not "burning". Get a grip. Obama has as much to do with the price at the pump as Bush did, which is to say, just about 0. I will blame you, the American people however. 40+ years of not paying attention to the fact that fossil fuel usage was going to paint us into a very tight corner. It's willful ignorance. I'm no Obama fan boy, but I didn't hate GW Bush either. The President is 1 person in a bureaucracy of epic proportions, a global economy of trillions of dollars, "liberals" and "conservatives" who will never come together on many issues for fear of "losing", and over arching it all is the massive plutocratic military industrial complex that exploded after WWII. There is no easy answer, and if there is one, it's about looking in the mirror and taking accountability for YOUR actions, not blaming everyone else.
Apr 21, 2011 at 8:17 a.m.
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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424...
I'll be the first to say right on as the liberals hate corporate profit even if this is Obama's buddy. What bothers me so much is Obama's willingness to bring down our standard of living and quality of life in exchange for HIGH GAS prices to futher line the pockets of his green energy pals. Where is the liberal out cry now??
Apr 21, 2011 at 7:53 a.m.
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After the Packers /Bills game, Buffalo released quarterback Trent Edwards.
During the Packers /Eagles game, the Packers injured Philadelphia quarterback Kevin Kolb and they had to play backup Michael Vick.
During a playoff game against the Eagles, the Packers injured Michael Vick and a backup quarterback was needed.
After the Packers /Cowboys game, Dallas fired coach Wade Phillips.
After the Packers /Vikings game, Minnesota fired coach Brad Childress.
Four weeks after losing to the Packers , 49er's coach Mike Singletary was fired and replaced.
During the Bears Playoff game, the Packers injured Jay Cutler and backup quarterback Todd Collins forcing the Bears to play 3rd string quarterback Caleb Hanie.
Is it just me or did the Packers actually create more jobs last year than Obama?
Apr 21, 2011 at 6:45 a.m.
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Ironic that this paper's blogs were full of Obama supporters 4 years ago. Where are they now? The world wonders.
Apr 21, 2011 at 6:37 a.m.
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What a laugh! He's out campaigning and our country is "burning". All he cares about is getting reelected. And his claim to deal with the debt? He offers cuts that add up to less than 1% of our current debt in this year's budget. And the republicans don't do much better and offering about 1.5%. Not near enough. Neither side is very anxious to face reality.
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