President Obama apparently blames the enthusiasm gap — the lack of support from his dispirited base — on the unenthused. Speaking at a fundraiser, Obama said Democrats who are displeased with his watered down legislation need to “wake up.”

President Obama speaking in Philadelphia:

So when I hear Democrats griping and groaning and saying, well, you know, the health care plan didn’t have a public option; and I don’t know, the financial reform — there was a provision here that I think we should have gotten better; or, you know what, yes, you ended the war in Iraq, the combat mission there, but you haven’t completely finished the Afghan war yet; or this or that or the other — I say, folks, wake up. (Laughter.) This is not some academic exercise. As Joe Biden put it, don’t compare us to the Almighty; compare us to the alternative. (Laughter and applause.) That’s what’s at stake in this election.

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Not to nitpick the president, but belittling dissatisfaction over the financial regulation bill that doesn’t do anything to prevent another meltdown as “there was a provision here that I think we should have gotten better” and criticism of the aimless dystopian nightmare of the Afghan war as “you haven’t completely finished the Afghan war yet” is just not a great way of motivating your disaffected supporters. — PZS

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