Obama tries to rally Democrats

President Obama said Wednesday that the “biggest threat” to his party’s congressional majority in November is not from Republicans but deflated Democrats who may stay home on election day.

Speaking in New York at a fundraiser for House and Senate Democrats, Obama acknowledged that the euphoria surrounding his 2008 win had long subsided, and that he had not delivered on all of his promises. But there is too much at stake, he said, to give in to disappointment.

“The single biggest threat to our success is not the other party. It’s us. It’s complacency. It’s apathy. It’s indifference. It’s people feeling like, well, we only got 80% of what we want, we didn’t get the other 20, so we’re just going to sit on our hands.”

As evidence, Obama was interrupted during his remarks by shouts about the failure to repeal the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. Obama said that while most Democrats voted to move forward on the proposal, Republicans were able to block it.

“Folks should be hollering at the other folks’ events because the choice in November could not be clearer,” the president said.

Obama’s new rhetoric reflects an increased urgency on his part with the midterm election less than six weeks away. Again evoking his 2008 win, he said: “The last election was about changing the guard. This election is about guarding the change.”

“The only way we fall backward is if we don’t get mobilized, if we don’t get energized -- because I promise you, the other side is energized,” he said.

Obama also sought to undercut the GOP’s planned rollout Thursday of its “Pledge to America,” a governing blueprint should the party win majorities this fall. He said that despite Republicans’ heavily promoted national listening tour, they ignored an idea popular among supporters: ending tax breaks for corporations that ship jobs overseas.

“That’s exactly the policy the Republicans have been fighting against for years,” he said. “The problem is not that Americans aren’t speaking out. It’s that the other party isn’t listening.”

The event for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee raised $1.4 million. Obama noted that the funds were essential to counter an avalanche of spending from third-party groups favoring Republican candidates.

Obama’s partisan activities in New York come on the eve of his address to the United Nations General Assembly. Next week he will return to the campaign in earnest on behalf of Democratic candidates, with the first of four major campaign rallies set in Madison, Wis., on Tuesday.

mmemoli@tribune.com

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