Democrat catches flak from volunteers

The national Democratic Party chief got an earful of complaints Tuesday from election volunteers who said President Barack Obama isn't doing enough to defend his policies and is getting sidetracked by issues such as a mosque project near ground zero instead of focusing on jobs.

One woman said it didn't help the Democrats when Obama took one stance, saying Muslims have a First Amendment right to build an Islamic center two blocks from one of the targets of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and then U.S. Sen. Harry Reid came out afterward and said the project should move somewhere else.

"That really made me cringe a lot," said Trish Smith, a local volunteer for Organizing for America, an outgrowth of Obama's nationwide Get Out The Vote campaign in 2008.

Tim Kaine, head of the Democratic National Committee, came to Las Vegas to give the volunteers a pep talk but instead found himself defending Reid and the president, who is under attack by GOP leaders such as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

"Mitch McConnell is like a, you know, just, you know, he's a mosquito, you know, bite, bite, bite and bite," Kaine said. "This president has got to get the economy out of the ditch the Republicans put it in. He's got to solve two wars that ... were open and blank check, no definition of an end mission when he came in. ... I do think there are some things on the message where we can be sharper. "

The McConnell issue came up in a question-and-answer session Kaine had with three dozen volunteers before a phone bank session to call Nevada voters.

Volunteers were seeking to increase support for Senate Majority Leader Reid, freshman Rep. Dina Titus and the senator's son, Rory Reid, who is running for governor.

Volunteer Susan Harris drew laughs when she said, "One of the things I noticed about the Republican Party is they're good at, I guess the word is lying" about Obama's achievements, such as passage of the health care law, Wall Street regulations and the $787 billion stimulus.

She questioned why Obama and the Democrats have not done more to dispute the GOP attacks.

"I have not really seen a very good defense by the Democratic Party or by the White House," Harris said as other volunteers murmured agreement. "And I'm very frustrated about it. And I want to see it. And I want you to go back to him (Obama) and tell him that it's time for him to come out and do what he did during ..."

"Yeah, you're starting to see him do it more," Kaine interrupted.

"But not enough," Harris said, interrupting Kaine. "I'm tired of Mitch McConnell doing his weaselly stuff, saying, well, if he says that he's a Christian, I'll take his word for it. Excuse me?"

McConnell, appearing last Sunday on "Meet the Press," was asked about a recent Pew poll that shows increasing numbers of Americans, especially Republicans, wrongly believe Obama is a Muslim. McConnell commented that the president "says he's a Christian, and I take him at his word."

Kaine told Harris not to be concerned about GOP attacks or questions being raised about Obama and his policies because recent polls, including one in the Wall Street Journal, show Democrats have been making progress in convincing more voters the party should retain control of Congress.

"Don't worry, the American public ain't buying it," Kaine said of McConnell's criticism of Democrats. But he acknowledged Obama hasn't been firm enough and is stepping up his election-year game. "The president is now starting to get pretty, you know, feisty out on the campaign trail.

"But the one thing is he has to be the president of all Americans," Kaine added. "And the other thing is, he's got more important things to do than to chase around Mitch McConnell."

But Larry Nadler, another volunteer, said Obama has been distracted as the nation continues to suffer from high unemployment, home foreclosures and other economic problems.

"It seems like the president gets kind of like off-message," Nadler told Kaine. "He starts delving into issues like the mosque. You know, that's a nonissue in my opinion. It's a constitutional right for them to build that mosque. ... I'm kind of like wondering why the president weighs in on issue like that when jobs, jobs, jobs is the number one priority that he needs to be addressing."

Kaine, a former Virginia governor, said that Obama has been doing "heavy lifting" to turn the economy around. The president entered the White House just as things started to collapse after what the DNC chief called a "lost decade" of bad policies under former GOP President George W. Bush.

"Since day one, that's been his number one focus," Kaine said. "That's why the stimulus was first."

Kaine said the economy is just now showing signs of growth after shrinking for two years.

"The president has not spent hours talking about the mosque," Kaine said, noting Obama commented on it on a Friday evening and then answered a question on his stance a day later.

"But when the other side is running campaigns, as they often do, based on who are we mad at now and who are we afraid of now, somebody's got to stand up" and defend the First Amendment and the Constitution, Kaine said, blaming the media for continuing to run stories on the controversy.

Kaine said he has no problem with Reid differing from Obama and quoted a line from American humorist Will Rogers, who once said, "I don't believe in organized parties. That's why I'm a Democrat."

"We're a big tent," Kaine said. "People can have different ideas. I don't think Senator Reid was disputing what the president said about the issue or the (First Amendment) right. You know, I think he was wishing, 'Hey leaders of the center, can you think about doing it somewhere else?'

"But in terms of what's right or wrong, the answer's the same," Kaine added. "It has to be the same whether it's a church, whether it's a synagogue or whether it's a mosque because we don't prefer people, we don't punish people, based on religions."

After getting tough questions from the Democratic supporters, Kaine said he didn't blame the true believers from being frustrated with Obama as the economy continues to suffer.

"I don't think it's wrong to be impatient," he said, and then quoted Thomas Edison: "Discontent is the first sign of progress."

"If you're not discontent about something and you just get complacent, then you stop moving forward," Kaine said. "And the president is more impatient than anybody. However, I do think it's important that people recognize there's a lot to do, but we've done a lot, too."

Contact Laura Myers at lmyers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2919.