At a fundraiser in New York City last night, President Obama jokingly referred to his birth certificate, touted his legislative victories, and tried to appease a frustrated base.
“My name is Barack Obama. I was born in Hawaii,” said the President at the beginning of his speech to the 1300 supporters gathered.
Obama was interrupted twice by hecklers shouting in the first few minutes of his speech. At least one of the interruptions was from activists who want funding for AIDs treatments increased. Obama tried to shrug the incident off, saying after the second interruption, “They can stay. I think they’ve made their point.”
Interruptions may become routine at Obama fundraisers: a similar incident occurred at a fundraiser last week in San Francisco, when activists started singing to protest Obama’s treatment of Bradley Manning.
Obama also tried to placate those who were disappointed by what he had managed to achieve so far, talking about his success in passing Obamacare, ending Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and succeeding in preventing the nation from entering a second depression. Imitating a supporter complaining that the public option hadn’t been included in Obamacare, he said, “I know you guys.”
Throughout the speech, audience members occasionally interacted with the President. When Obama talked about the nation needing to decide what it could live without, one man in the audience shouted, “Guantanomo!” When the President said, “We still have work to do,” one woman rejoined loudly, “Oh yes, we do.”
Obama’s call for raising taxes on the wealthy drew him a standing ovation and rousing applause from a crowd whose tickets had started as low as $44.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Obama did not mention raising taxes on the wealthy at the two higher-priced fundraisers he had attended earlier that day, including an event where tickets were set at $35,800.