2010-10-26 11:21

 

US President Barack Obama (R) speaks at a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) rally in Providence, Rhode Island Oct 25, 2010. Providence Mayor David Cicilline, who is running for Congress, is sitting beside Obama. [Photo/Agencies]

Obama repeated his charge that Republicans had played politics with the small-business lending package by holding it up in the Senate for months. The bill finally cleared the US Congress in September.

"They talk a good game about tax cuts and giving entrepreneurs the freedom to succeed," he said. But "they voted against tax breaks for companies creating jobs here in the United States," he said.

Obama's attacks on Republicans have done little to dent voter disappointment with his economic policies, which have so far failed to bring down unemployment stuck near 10 percent.

Delivering change is hard and it is understandable that people are discouraged, "but we're just in the first quarter," Obama told a Democratic fundraising event in Providence. "We have a whole game to play."

The fundraiser was one of two for the congressional campaign of Providence Mayor David Cicilline and other candidates in Rhode Island, a traditionally Democratic-leaning state.

Polls show Cicilline with a lead of about 10 percentage points over Republican state lawmaker John Loughlin in the race to succeed Democrat Patrick Kennedy in the US House, but Obama's visit showed he was taking no chances.

Obama has found himself in a bind, however, over the governor's race in Rhode Island.

The president has withheld endorsement of the Democratic candidate, state treasurer Frank Caprio. He is in a tight contest against former Republican Senator Lincoln Chafee, who is running as an independent and was a high-profile endorser of Obama during the Democratic primaries in 2008.

Caprio, on hearing that Obama had no plans to formally back anyone in the race, told Rhode Island radio station WPRO that Obama can "take his endorsement and really shove it as far as I'm concerned." He called the decision "Washington insider politics at its worst."

White House deputy spokesman Bill Burton told reporters traveling on Air Force One, "Out of his respect for his friend Lincoln Chafee, the president decided not to get involved in this race."

Burton said Obama was "comfortable" with his decision.

Obama is keeping up a busy schedule of campaign appearances this week aimed at rekindling the enthusiasm that helped sweep him to victory two years ago.

The congressional elections are widely seen as a referendum on Obama's own record.

Obama is trying to show voters - especially the middle class seen as crucial to embattled Democrats' electoral prospects - that he and his party are doing everything they can to boost the tepid US economy.