Obama Urges Liberals to 'Keep Up the Fight'

Michael R. Blood


AP LAS VEGAS (July 24) -- President Barack Obama made an election-season appeal Saturday to disgruntled liberal activists and bloggers, assuring them his administration is committed to their causes and urging them to help elect Democrats in November.

"Change hasn't come fast enough for too many Americans. I know that," Obama said in a surprise video appearance at the annual Netroots Nation convention. "I know it hasn't come fast for many of you who fought so hard during the election."

In a year when Democrats are expected to lose seats in Congress, party leaders have grown concerned with malaise in the left wing. Liberals who helped elect Obama in 2008 have grown disenchanted on issues from the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to the failure to create a government-run insurance option in the health care overhaul, and many believe the White House has been too accommodating with Republicans.

In his remarks, the president said the combat mission in Iraq would soon end, and that the administration is working to repeal the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy for gays and close the U.S. prison for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay.

"In ways large and small we've begun to deliver on the change you fought so hard for," Obama said.

"We cant afford to slide backward. And that's the choice America faces this November," he added. "Keep up the fight."

Hundreds of activists and bloggers applauded warmly after the video ended, but some were not appeased.

The video "doesn't really change my views. I'm still waiting for action," said Matthew Filipowicz, 33, a cartoonist and comedian from Chicago. "Words only do so much."

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