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Obama exhorts Democrats to 'stand up,' mocks GOP on economy

A defiant President Obama came to Philadelphia on Thursday to urge Democrats to keep aggressively promoting their beliefs, despite an Election Day drubbing.

President Obama addresses members of the House Democratic caucus
Jan. 29, 2015, during their three-day policy retreat in Society Hill.  (
TOM GRALISH / Staff Photographer )
President Obama addresses members of the House Democratic caucus Jan. 29, 2015, during their three-day policy retreat in Society Hill. ( TOM GRALISH / Staff Photographer )Read more

A defiant President Obama came to Philadelphia on Thursday to urge Democrats to keep aggressively promoting their beliefs, despite an Election Day drubbing.

Embodying that combative outlook, Obama added a swipe at Republicans and Mitt Romney for, in his view, trying to imitate Democrats' concern for the average American.

"Even though their policies haven't quite caught up yet, their rhetoric is starting to sound pretty Democratic," Obama said in a speech to House Democrats meeting at the Society Hill Sheraton.

GOP leaders, like Democrats here, have stressed that their ideas are the ones to help the middle class thrive.

"I consider imitation the highest form of flattery. Come on board," Obama said after mentioning a senator (whom he didn't name) who "was suddenly shocked, shocked, that the top 1 percent is doing really well."

And in a clear reference to Romney, the 2012 GOP presidential nominee, who has pledged to focus on income inequality if he runs again, Obama sarcastically said that a "presidential candidate on the other side" is now "deeply concerned with poverty. That's great!"

With lawmakers rising and heartily cheering, Obama concluded by urging them to "stand up and not be defensive about what we believe in - that's why we're Democrats."

Republicans said voters rejected Democratic policies in November when they turned the Senate over to the GOP and gave the party its largest House majority in more than 80 years.

"President Obama and Washington Democrats, they're not hearing what we have to say," Renee Amoore, deputy chair of the Pennsylvania Republican Party, said before Obama's speech. She said Democrats "keep supporting the same old policies that will grow our government instead of the economy."

Obama spoke at House Democrats' policy retreat, where the diminished caucus is mapping a new strategy for the next two years.

Meeting in one of the most posh sections of a city that has one of America's highest poverty rates, Democrats have stressed that they intend to have a singular focus on the middle class and its economic anxiety.

Outside the event, about 100 protesters waited for Obama, some opposed to the Keystone XL pipeline and others urging him to send arms to Ukraine.

Some of the pipeline protesters chanted: "Hey, Obama, we don't want no pipeline drama."

"We want to tell Obama to reject the Keystone pipeline," said fourth-year Drexel University junior Adam Bleiman, 22, tapping his skateboard along with the chanting circle of protesters next to him. He came with the student group he helped found, Fossil Free Drexel.

A bill to approve the pipeline passed the Senate on Thursday, but Obama has vowed to veto the measure as he awaits further review of the project.

Ulana Mazurkevich, president of the organization Ukrainian Human Rights, stood amid protesters waving blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flags, dressed in a full-length fur coat and shouting "Arms for Ukraine!" into a megaphone.

"He should authorize the Ukrainian Freedom Support Act," Mazurkevich said of the president.

Inside, Obama spoke to a friendly crowd of House Democrats and their family members and aides. Mayor Nutter worked the crowd.

In a speech reminiscent of his State of the Union address last week, Obama said, "America has come back," and cited growth in jobs and manufacturing and declines in unemployment and the deficit.

But he cautioned that there was "a lot more work to do," saying, "The ground that middle-class families lost over the last 30 years still has to be made up."

He again urged lawmakers to take up proposals such as making community college free for many students, and providing paid family leave and tax credits for higher education and child care - all while closing tax loopholes for big businesses.

The Republican National Committee chided Obama as relying on "tax-and-spend big-government policies that hurt the middle class."

Obama said the rebounding economy showed that past GOP warnings that his policies would kill jobs proved unfounded.

"It's pretty rare where you have two visions, a vigorous debate, and then you test who's right," Obama said as his party allies stood and cheered. "And the record shows that we were right."