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US President Barack Obama has begun marshalling troops for his 2012 presidential campaign, recognizing that his poetic rhetoric of 2008 has been grounded by tough political realities. At two campaign events Thursday in California, the first a gathering of wealthy Democratic Party donors at a private residence and the second at a grand hall packed with mostly young supporters, Obama went on the offensive. "We knew this wouldn't be easy," he said at the second event, referring to the hopes embodied in his victorious campaign. "Change in the concrete is hard. ... Sometimes I get frustrated." He applauded what he views as his greatest successes, including the auto industry rescue, major healthcare reform, the adoption of new financial regulations, and the end of a ban on gays serving openly in the military. At the first event, where donors paid $35,800 each to dine with the president while Stevie Wonder provided the music, Obama slammed a Republican budget plan, put forward in the House of Representatives. It calls for cutting back on social programs while preserving tax cuts on top-earners enacted by Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush. "That's the easy path in some ways. The easiest thing to do is for the rich and powerful to say we've got ours and we don't have to worry about the rest. It doesn't require a lot of imagination," Obama said. "The easiest way of cutting healthcare is to stop giving healthcare to people. But that's not the America I believe in. That's not the America you believe in. That's what 2012 is going to be about. ... We started something in 2008; we haven't finished it yet. And I'm going to need you to finish it," he added. Obama had earlier called on young voters to "double down" in 2012 during a campaign-style visit to Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, California, in which he appeared alongside the company's 26-year-old founder, Mark Zuckerberg. "Don't get frustrated and cynical about our democracy," even though "Lord knows it's frustrating," he pleaded at a question-and-answer session at the social-networking titan's home base. Agencies |
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