Obama: Democrats 'moving forward'

by Peter Nicholas

Attempting to rouse a party shaken by electoral setbacks, President Barack Obama told fellow Democrats today that he would press ahead with his healthcare proposal and other pieces of his ambitious agenda, rejecting suggestions that a more cautious approach might minimize losses in the upcoming midterm elections.

Obama, who left the White House during an epic blizzard, sought to rally Democratic National Committee members in a speech that was part pep talk and part prescription for what the party must do to overcome problems culminating in the loss of the Massachusetts Senate seat held by the late Democratic icon, Edward M. Kennedy.

Trimming goals and postponing hard choices is the wrong approach, the president said.

In an emotional high-point of his 20-minute address, Obama conceded that the public wonders if elected officials can overcome the immense power of lobbyists and special interests and "confront the real problems that touch their lives.''

He said: "So just in case there's any confusion out there, let me be clear. I am not going to walk away from health insurance reform. I'm not going to walk away from the American people. I'm not going to walk away from this challenge. I'm not going to walk away from any challenge. We're moving forward.''

His voice rising, he added: "We are moving forward!''

(President Barack Obama is pictured above at the Democratic National Committee's Winter Meeting in Washington today. Pool photo by Brendan Hoffman.)

The sowstorm disrupted the DNC's winter meeting, with some delegates unable to attend because of flight cancellations and sporadic subway service. Not even the presidential motorcade was spared. During the five-minute drive to the event a few blocks from the White House, a black ambulance lost control on snow-covered streets and veered into an SUV carrying reporters. No one was hurt.

As the motorcade returned to the White House, a tree branch weighted down by snow snapped off and fell on top of a Chrysler SUV carrying a group of photographers. Obama, who often portrays himself as a hardened Chicagoan immune to Washington's comparatively tepid winter weather, paid full respect to the storm, labeling it: "snowmaggedon.''

Obama's appearance came at a time when the party's core membership is demoralized. With the president's poll numbers dropping, some Democratic congressional campaigns are weighing whether to distance themselves from Obama in the run-up to the mid-term elections in November.

The party's leadership has become a target. Steven Ybarra, a former DNC member from Sacramento, Calif., said in an interview: "The DNC is a disaster. Have we seen the chairman of the DNC (Tim Kaine) on any of the Sunday programs talking about how the party is going to react to any of this? Does anybody know who the chairman of the Democratic National Committee is?''

Ybarra said Obama should install as the head of the DNC his 2008 campaign manager, David Plouffe.

Roberto Prats, a DNC member from Puerto Rico who attended the conference, said: "The mood is one of shock.'' He said members have found it tough to "digest'' the loss of the Kennedy seat to Republican Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.). Brown was sworn in to the Senate this week, depriving Democrats of a super-majority that the president had counted on for passage of his agenda.

In this worrisome environment, Obama tried to rally the party by saying it is no time to abandon the bold agenda charted at the beginning of his administration. He did not specify how he intended to advance a healthcare bill that is now stalled in Congress. But he said it must pass.

"Yes, we could continue to ignore the growing burden of the runaway cost of healthcare,'' said Obama, wearing a suit jacket but no tie. "The easiest thing to do right now would be to just say, 'Ah, this is too hard. Let's just regroup and lick our wounds and try to hang on.'

"We've had a long and difficult debate on healthcare and there are some, maybe even the majority in this town, who say, perhaps it's time to walk away,'' the president told his party. "But here's the thing, Democrats. If we walk away we know what will happen. We know that premiums and out-of-pocket expenses will skyrocket this decade and the decade after that, and the decade after that.''

If Democrats are worried about his falling approval-rating, Obama offered an answer. He said pollsters are calling Americans who are sour about the economic downturn and in no mood to talk favorably about incumbents -- they are worried about home foreclosures, credit card fees and rising healthcare premiums.

"When a pollster calls and asks, 'How do you think President Obama is doing right now?' What are they going to say? What are they going to say?'' Obama asked.

Obama dished out some blame for Republicans, who he said have abdicated their responsibility to govern.

The Republicans, he said, "made a political decision all too often to jump in the back seat, let us do the driving and then critique whether we were taking the right turns. That's OK. That's part of what it means to govern.''

Invoking past Democratic presidents who faced tough challenges, Obama mentioned the struggles of Thomas Jefferson, Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy.

"I know we've gone through a tough year,'' he said. "But we've gone through tougher years.''

Among those in the audience was FDR's grandson, Jim Roosevelt, co-chair of the party's Rules and Bylaws Committee.

Roosevelt said he welcomed Obama's message.

"I think it would be very dangerous to get cautious,'' Roosevelt said. "Because it would give up on the change that has brought us back from the brink of a full depression.

"But we have a long way to go.''

Peter.nicholas@latimes.com