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Questioned about the president's policies on the economy, gay rights and tax cuts, Pfeiffer argued that Obama has worked hard to get his agenda through a divided Congress during a time of hardship. Pfeiffer said the White House would serve as a check against Republican efforts to undercut Medicare, privatize Social Security and repeal the health care overhaul. Obama, he said, would work to bring wireless technology to rural areas, develop alternative energy sources and offer tax incentives for small business. But the audience was clearly skeptical. The interview grew tense at times, and Pfeiffer was booed when he responded to a question about a 1996 legislative-race questionnaire in which Obama had said he supported gay marriage. Pfeiffer said someone else had filled out the questionnaire and Obama was "evolving on the issue" along with the rest of the nation. Gray also pushed Pfeiffer for details on whether the administration would offer a comprehensive job-creation bill. "With a 9.1 percent unemployment rate, why wouldn't we have a jobs bill?" she said icily. Frustration, if not anger, was clear. At one panel, Dan Choi, an Iraq War veteran who was discharged for being gay, ripped up an Obama campaign pamphlet and tossed it into the air when an aide to Obama's political organization told him that the aide personally wasn't supportive of gay marriage. "I believe that I'm an equal citizen," Choi scolded the staffer. Elsewhere at the conference, liberals questioned the president's commitment to the DREAM Act, which would give a path to legal status for young people who were brought into the United States without documents as children and who either plan to attend college or join the military. It stalled in Congress last year.
Some activists want Obama to use his administrative powers to protect those who would be covered under the legislation from being deported. And they complain about the Obama administration's deportation of nearly 400,000 immigrants in 2010, a record, while noting his efforts to court Hispanics as he seeks a second term. "Obama has the guts to deport our mothers, deport our fathers, deport our people and then come to us and say `I want your vote'? Please," said Felipe Matos, a Miami immigration activist. For all the griping, many liberals here appear resigned. They know Obama is their only option to ensure Democrats continue to control the White House. They point to efforts in Wisconsin, Ohio and elsewhere to strip away collective bargaining rights from most public workers as an example of what could happen if Republicans win. Said former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, a one-time Democratic Party chairman: "The alternative is in clear sight."
[Associated
Press;
Associated Press Deputy Polling Director Jennifer Agiesta contributed to this report.
Ken Thomas can be reached at http://twitter.com/AP-Ken-Thomas.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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