President Obama told union supporters Monday that Democrats can beat Republicans in the same way he wed Michelle Obama: by simply persisting until she said “yes.”
Obama flew to Milwaukee to speak at Laborfest and promote his policies he said have made America “stronger” — “because of the decisions we made to rescue our economy and rebuild it on a new foundation asking the simple question, is this good for ordinary Americans, is this good for working people — not just a few, but for everybody.”
“By almost every measure, the American economy and American workers are better off than when I took office,” he said to applause. “We’re better off by almost every measure. But, look, none of this progress has come easy. Every inch of it we have had to fight for. Every inch of it we’ve had to work against a lockstep opposition that is opposed to everything we do.”
“But it was worth it. Every gray hair is worth it. Every gray hair is worth it — and at least I’ve still got some hair.”
At this, one of the union supporters shouted, “And you look good!”
“Oh, I look good — see, I like that. Thank you. Whenever folks say — whenever they see me they say, you know what, you look OK — like they’re surprised. And then sometimes they say I look taller than I do on TV. I say, yes, I look — that’s because the TV is small. It makes me look smaller,” Obama quipped.
He then got back to his argument about Republican obstructionism. “Sometimes when I talk about this stuff to some of my folks on the other side of the aisle, they’re all like, well, why are you stirring up class resentments? I’m not stirring up class resentment,” the president said. “Let me tell you something, working families, they’re fine that folks are rich. The average person, they’re not looking for a yacht. They’re not looking for their own plane. They’re not looking for a mansion. They don’t need to be vacationing in St. Bart’s. All they’re looking for is that if they work hard, they can pay the bills; that they can send their kids to school; they can retire with some dignity, maybe take a vacation once in a while — go to Wisconsin Dells or something. They ain’t looking for nothing fancy.”
“If we had a Congress that cared about policies that actually helped working people, I promise you we could get everything done that we’ve talked about doing. But until we have that Congress, it’s up to us to fight for these policies,” he added. “So wherever I can, I’ve acted on my own.”
Of people who want to hike the minimum wage and implement other policies pushed by unions, Obama said, “Eventually, Congress is going to hear them.”
“We’ll break those folks down. We’ll just stay on them. We’ll just keep at it. That’s how I got Michelle to marry me — I just wore her down,” he quipped. “Persistence — you just stay at it. Because the only thing more powerful than an idea whose time has come is when millions of people are organizing around an idea whose time has come. Millions of people are voting for an idea whose time has come.”
“…America is not the party we belong to, but the values we share. America is hard work. America is responsibility. America is sacrifice. America is looking out for one another. Let’s embrace some economic patriotism that says we rise or fall together as one nation, as one people.”
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