President Tries to Put Recent Battles Behind Him at Aragon
By Chuck Sudo in News on Aug 4, 2011 2:20PM
Battered and Bruised by the debt ceiling negotiations and with his approval ratings slipping in a Rasmussen poll, President Obama returned to the terra firma of a partisan hometown crowd to try to put his recent struggles behind him, move the narrative away from the debt negotiation and raise some cash for his reelection campaign with an early birthday party/fundraiser at a sweltering Aragon Ballroom.
“It doesn’t matter how tough a week I have in Washington, because I know you’ve got me — you’ve got my back,” Obama said. He then implored the crowd that lawmakers in Congress don't have time to "play these partisan games."
“I hope we can avoid another self-inflicted wound like we saw over the last couple weeks,” Obama said, referring to the debt ceiling negotiations.
While Obama urged the crowd at the Aragon and thousands of others via video link backstage before the event at fundraisers across the nation to move on to more pressing matters, the GOP already had and was criticizing Obama's fundraiser. Illinois GOP chairman Pat Brady scolded the president, saying that he should be focusing on job creation. “They’ve concentrated so much on fundraising. I don’t think they’ve concentrated so much on issues that are really important and that’s the issue of job creation,” Brady said.
Brady also addressed the contradiction of Republican presidential hopefuls such as Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann raising campaign cash. Brady said "(she) made all the votes, and she was very clear on what she stood for, agree or disagree."
This time in 2003, President George W. Bush was raking in boatloads of cash for his reelection campaign and we had only invaded Iraq, been in Afghanistan for less than two years and were all in on the War on Terror. Which we gather is an ideal time to raise campaign cash.
Aaron Cynic contributed to this post.