Is this the one in Florida with 108 lobbyists?
He’s at the Newseum in Washington, where the Senate Democratic Policy Committee Issues Conference is being held.
Update at 11:10 a.m. ET:
“China is not waiting, it is moving” on developing clean energy technology, the president warns, and “already, the anticipation is that they will lap us when it comes to clean energy. ... We are at risk ... of falling behind.”
“I continue to believe ... that the country that figures out most rapidly, new forms of energy and can commercialize new ideas is going to lead the 21st Century economy. ... That is our growth model.”
What’s needed, he adds, are “the right incentives” and openness to a variety of technologies — including “clean coal.”
Update at 11:05 a.m. ET:
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., wants to hear about the judicial nominations that have been held up because objections raised by Senate Republicans.
“We have to be highlighting that this is not the way we should be doing business,” Obama says. He also concedes, that Democrats did the same thing when a Republican was in the White House — though he claims “we were a little more selective in how we did it.”
Update at 10:50 a.m. ET:
Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., wonders if Democrats need to be willing to “push back in our own party (against) people who want extremes” — particularly on economic issues.
Obama says yes: “We’ve got to be non-ideological in our approach to these things. ... We’ve got to go with what works.”
By the way, CBS News’ Mark Knoller — hearing Obama say he wishes he had left Washington more often last year — just tweeted that the president made 48 domestic trips last year.
Update at 10:40 a.m. ET:
Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., says of the capital that “this place looks broken to the American people.”
“What are we going to do differently ... to fix this system?” Bennet asks.
Obama says he’s trying to challenge Republicans, especially in the Senate, by saying that “if you want to govern, then you can’t just say no.”
As for the Democrats, Obama says, “I do think that the more open we are, the more transparent we are ... the better off we are. And I think the health care bill is a perfect example. ... I think the ultimate package ... is better then where we started” because of the vigorous public debate over the past year.
It would also help, Obama says, if lawmakers would “turn off the TV”, stop reading blogs and “just go talk to folks out there instead of being in this echo chamber where the topic is constantly politics.”
He made a mistake last year, Obama says, by “not getting out of here” more often.
Update at 10:30 a.m. ET:
The first questions are from a veteran senator, but a relatively new Democrat — Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, who used to be a Republican. Specter wants to know if the president will support tougher getting tougher with China, which the senator says has cost the U.S. more than 2 million jobs because of unfair trade practices.
“I would not be in favor of revoking the trade relationships we have with China,” Obama begins. “The approach we’re taking is to be much tougher in enforcing existing rules.”
“But what I don’t want to do ... is for us ... to shy away from international competition. ... If we are able to compete on an even playing field, nobody can beat us.”
Update at 10:23 a.m. ET: Perhaps in a bid to shore up morale a bit, the president says he and the other elected officials in the room didn’t go into politics “for the fame” but because of issues that were “so important that you were willing to stand up and be counted.”
Update at 10:18 a.m. ET: According to the president, when he and his fellow Democrats have extended a hand to Republicans, many times they’ve gotten “a fist in return.”
But, he says, “the American people are out of patience with business as usual ... they want us to worry less about keeping our jobs and more about keeping them in their jobs.”
Update at 10:12 a.m. ET: Without naming them, the president just took a shot at Republicans. He notes that last year, Senate Democrats cast more votes to cut off filibusters than were cast “in the entire 1950s and 60s combined.” That is “20 years of obstruction packed into just one,” he adds.
Update at 10:10 a.m. ET: The president is beginning with a bit of a review. “We always knew this was going to be a difficult year to govern — an extraordinarily difficult year,” he says.
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