Amid criticism from campaign finance watchdogs, President Obama spent time at a second "political outreach event" of the day to deliver a speech to about 60 donors and former staffers at an Organizing for Action dinner, elucidating the organization's purpose in his second term, as reported by CBSNews.com.
"The truth of the matter is all I've been doing is just calling up folks and trying to see if we can break through some of the gobbledygook of our politics here," he said at a high-end hotel near the White House. "We've got to get members of Congress involved in these discussions, not just leadership, because I think a lot of them feel as if they don't have the opportunity to break out of some of this partisan gridlock."
The president delived a speech on the first night of a two-day summit of the non profit group that groew out of his reelection campaign organization. Organizing for Action is "now focused on advocating for and implementing the president's agenda," CBSNews.com reported.
"I think there's a weariness among membership in the Senate and the House about this constant grind day-in, day-out of argument and crises instead of productivity and movement forward,"the politics of a lot of these issues are tough. And members sometimes are scared about making the right decisions," Obama added.
Obama's appearance at the summit comes while new allegations that the high-paying donors were promised the opportunity to meet with him at the White House.
"Organizing for Action is a mistake by President Obama that he should correct," Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer countered in a statement today. "Organizing for Action is an unprecedented entity that creates new opportunities for big donors and bundlers of large amounts to obtain corrupting influence over executive branch policies and decisions."
The president sought to clarify the mission of "Organizing for Action," adding
"People have been puzzled about what it is that we're trying to do because the usual idea is: well this must just be a mechanism to try to win the next election in 2014. And what we've tried to explain to people is, is that, no I actually just want to govern. At least for a couple of years," he said. "What we want is to make sure that the voices of the people who put me here continue to be heard. That they're not just heard during election time, that they're not just heard in terms of dollar solicitations, that we are helping to build or sustain a network of citizens who have a voice in the most critical debates that are going to be taking place over the next year, year and a half, and if it works, potentially beyond."
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