President Obama charged Sunday that the GOP vision of government would “fundamentally cripple America” as he tried out his newly combative message on the liberal West Coast.
Aiming to renew the ardor of Democratic loyalists who have grown increasingly disenchanted with him, the president mixed frontal attacks on Republicans with words of encouragement intended to buck up the faithful as the 2012 campaign revs up.
“From the moment I took office what we’ve seen is a constant ideological pushback against any kind of sensible reforms that would make our economy work better and give people more opportunity,” the president said at an intimate brunch fundraiser at the Medina, Wash., home of former Microsoft executive Jon Shirley, where about 65 guests were paying $35,800 per couple to listen to Obama.
Similar messages followed at an event in Seattle and another in California’s Silicon Valley Sunday evening, as Obama pushed through a seven-stop fundraising swing that was taking him from Seattle to Hollywood to San Diego through Monday. The three-day West Coast swing, ending Tuesday in Denver, offered him the chance to re-engage with some of his most liberal and deep-pocketed supporters.
The trip comes as Obama has shifted from focusing on compromise with Republicans on Capitol Hill to calling out House Speaker John Boehner and others by name. The president has criticized them as obstructionists while demanding their help in passing his $447 billion jobs bill.
via Obama Says GOP Would ‘Cripple’ America : NPR.