Obama And Michelle Ask Progressive Groups For Help Driving White House Agenda
At a private White House cocktail reception last night for leaders of major progressive groups, Barack Obama and his wife Michelle appealed to these leaders and signaled that their groups would play a key role in driving the big progressive changes at the heart of the White House’s legislative agenda, an attendee tells me.
The message was that these groups would be valuable as a kind of progressive outside “echo chamber,” as the attendee puts it.
The party — which was organized by top Obama aide Valerie Jarrett — signals that the White House is moving forward with efforts to build coordination with outside progressive groups in order to drive the White House’s message and beat back its foes. As I reported recently, Jarrett is at the center of those efforts.
Obama didn’t give a talk, and the President, Michelle, and Joe Biden mingled informally with various groups of progressive leaders. The message, the attendee adds, was that “it’s very clear that there will need to be an echo chamber and a way for groups on the outside to build the case for big progressive legislation.”
“The gist was, `We’re gonna need people out there telling the story of the stimulus and telling the story about how much we need big health care reform and clean energy and green jobs,’” the attendee says.
Among those on the guest list: Labor leaders Jimmy Hoffa, Gerry McEntee and Andy Stern; MoveOn’s Eli Pariser; Sierra Club’s Carl Pope; Planned Parenthood’s Cecile Richardson; and Joe Solomonese of the Human Rights Campaign.
Word of the gathering first leaked out when Ben Smith posted Andy Stern’s Twitter saying he’d just been at the reception.
This is a key development for progressive leaders; more soon.
Update: We have a lot more detail for you on the meeting right here.
Obama To Progressive Leaders: We Have A Lot More To Do
Here’s some more interesting detail on the reception that President Obama, Michelle and Joe Biden hosted for progressive leaders last night at the White House, which I described below.
A second attendee emails me to describe Obama making the rounds and congratulating each leader personally for their work in helping pass the stimulus package.
“He was in good spirits -– spent a lot of time with each person,” the attendee emails. “Lots of congratulations being passed around. But when I could hear him he always turned to what’s next: We have a lot more to do -– energy, health care, etc.”
Obama also displayed a fairly intimate knowledge of what the groups had done to push the stim, such as the big Americans United for Change ad campaign.
“He was well aware of the work that had gone on –- including the ads,” the attendee emails.
“People were very excited -– if I had a dollar for every time I heard someone say, `It’s nice to be back in the White House after eight years,’ I could buy a nice lunch today,” the attendee adds.
One other fun detail, involving chief of staff Rahm Emanuel: “It was interesting,” the attendee emails. “Rahm came in the room and pulled Obama aside to share something. But it didn’t look all that urgent –- or at least it wasn’t bad. Whatever news he gave him got a big smile from the President and a half bear hug.”
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