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| Susan Walsh/Associated Press - President Barack Obama waves from the top of the steps of Air Force One at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco, Wednesday, April 3, 2013. Obama will be attending Democratic fundraisers while in California. |
Obama’s California swing, which started Tuesday with two fundraisers for House Democrats, kicks off a concerted effort to help his party win back the House and keep its Senate majority next year. It’s a mission that, if successful, would improve his playing field and help him secure his legacy during his final two years in office, a lame-duck period in which a president’s influence quickly ebbs.
Making his pitch to donors Tuesday night in San Francisco, Obama said he’s prepared this year to work with Republicans to pass legislation aimed at gun violence, an immigration overhaul and fiscal stability.
“But, realistically, I’d get a whole lot more done if Nancy Pelosi is speaker of the House,” Obama said with the California congresswoman and House Democratic leader at his side.
The short-term pitfalls are clear. Obama has spent much of the past month pursuing warmer relations with Republicans in Congress whose votes he needs to enact his agenda. Republicans on the receiving end of Obama’s ongoing “charm offensive” — the president will dine with Senate Republicans next week for a second time — say his partisan tone when he leaves Washington makes them question his sincerity when he says he’s willing to meet Republicans halfway.
“He’s doing a pretty lousy job of it,” Reince Priebus, the chair of the Republican Party, said in an interview. “If he was someone who was as conciliatory as he proclaims to be, you would think he would have a few decent relationships with Republicans, but he doesn’t. Instead, he spends most of his time campaigning.”
White House officials are mindful of the balancing act Obama must carry out to avoid undermining relations with Republican lawmakers when he hits the campaign trail for Democrats. Aides say the president can carry out both goals at once by avoiding explicit attacks on Republicans, instead focusing on elements of his agenda that enjoy broad public support and urging voters to support candidates who will back that agenda.
“The president’s appeal to his supporters won’t interfere with his continued efforts to work with Republicans to move that agenda through the Congress,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.
Almost immediately after winning re-election in November, Obama made clear he would put his full weight behind efforts to elect Democrats in the 2014 midterms, upping his commitment from previous years. During Obama’s first term, some Democrats complained he didn’t do enough to help — especially in 2010, when Democrats lost control of the House.
This time, Democratic officials say, Obama will headline at least 20 fundraisers: six for House Democrats, six for Senate Democrats and two joint House-Senate events, plus another half-dozen or so for the Democratic National Committee, which is still retiring the debt it racked up last year helping Obama win a second term.
