President Obama delivered remarks in Santa Monica, California, Thursday evening at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser during which he admitted to not having ameliorated the Washington gridlock during his time in the White House.
Obama particularly mentioned a letter he received from a voter in Colorado — one of the 10 notes he reads on a given night — who complained that the president has not been able to bring both sides of the aisle together in the nation’s capital.
“The core of his complaint was that he thought that when I got to Washington I could bring people together and make them work more effectively,” Obama explained at the fundraiser, which was held at the residence of Hollywood star Tyler Perry. “And the fact of the matter is that Washington is still gridlocked and still seems obsessed with the short term and the next election instead of the next generation. And on that issue, I had to tell him, you’re right.”
Yet, as is his custom, Obama passed the blame for such gridlock onto Congress.
“I am frustrated, and you have every right to be frustrated, because Congress doesn’t work the way it should,” the president continued. “Issues are left untended. Folks are more interested in scoring political points than getting things done.”
And, while Obama admitted that Washington “still is broken” at the end of his presidency, he claimed that he did not, as the letter’s author suggested, promise to fix the gridlock himself when he first ran for the White House in 2008.
“When I ran in 2008, I, in fact, did not say I would fix it; I said we could fix it,” Obama alleged. “I didn’t say, yes, I can; I said … yes, we can.”
“Sometimes I feel like people forgot the essence of my pledge when I ran for president,” he said later. “I said to people, I am not a perfect man, I will not be a perfect president, but I promise you I will wake up every single day and I will go to bed every single night thinking about how to make sure that ordinary Americans have a chance. … That pledge I’ve kept.”
Obama recommended that individuals frustrated with inaction in government need to organize constituencies to “put pressure to elect people” who strive toward the changes they desire.
“If you’re concerned about racial polarization in this country, it’s nice to have dialogues around race, but me making a good speech — and I’ve made some good speeches on the subject — that’s not going to solve the problem,” Obama added.
The next president and his constituents, Obama said, have “unfinished business” to attend to that will require all Americans to “push this society and ultimately push Congress in the direction of change.”
