President Barack Obama implored Democrats on Monday to remember why they sent him to the White House and told supporters that a Republican-led Congress would prevent him from accomplishing his agenda.
"I can only succeed if I've got help," Obama said during remarks at a high-dollar fundraiser at an oceanfront estate in South Florida.
Obama said that while he would like to believe that Republicans would work with him, he's "not optimistic."
With unemployment at 9.6 percent, Obama said he knows Americans are frustrated. But he said the Nov. 2 midterm elections shouldn't be a referendum on where the country is now, but a choice between which party can get the country to where it needs to be.
Relying on a familiar refrain during his campaign appearances this fall, Obama said Republicans have a "lack of ideas" and a "fundamental lack of seriousness" about how to lead the county in the right direction.
Monday's fundraiser at the home of former basketball star Alonzo Mourning was expected to raise about $1 million for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Rep. Ron Klein, who is locked in a tight race to hold his House seat.
Klein is facing Republican Allen West, a former Army officer he defeated in 2008. This time around Allen has the benefit of fierce anti-incumbent sentiment and has outraised Klein $4 million to $2.5 million, according to the latest reports from the campaigns.
West had a new television ad running Monday in South Florida "welcoming" Obama to the region, and encouraging the president and Klein to "leave that closed-door, high-roller fundraiser and drive by our shuttered businesses and foreclosed homes."
Before departing Miami, Obama stopped by El Mago de las Fritas, a Cuban restaurant that's been in Miami for nearly 50 years.
Obama ordered a Cuban hamburger, which is made of Spanish sausage and topped with french fries. He jokingly warned reporters not to tell his health-conscious wife, first lady Michelle Obama, about his order
'Stay fired up'
On Sunday, Obama was in Philadelphia campaigning as if his name were on the ballot. He implored voters in a rousing stump speech to use the three weeks left in the campaign to "stay fired up" and go to the polls to prevent a Republican landslide.
He and the Democratic party know, however, that this year finds Democrats imperiled because of what has become known as the "enthusiasm gap," with party voters expected to stay away from the polls in a nationwide vote that was widely expected to hand the majority in the House of Representatives and, perhaps, the Senate to Republicans.
"I think the pundits are wrong. I think we're going to win. But you've got to prove them wrong," Obama said, jabbing his finger toward the audience. "They're counting on you staying home. If that happens they win."
Recent blows to Democrats
There are ample reasons for Republican optimism.
Poll after poll shows deep voter discontent and even anger at Obama's and congressional Democrats' leadership. Obama and his fellow Democrats are being blamed for the slow economic recovery and continuing high unemployment.
On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics — in the last major economic news before the November elections — delivered another painful blow to Democrats: The U.S. lost 95,000 jobs in September and unemployment remained stubbornly stuck at 9.6 percent.
In another complication for Democrats, the government is expected to announce this week that more than 58 million recipients in the government's Social Security pension program would go through another year without a cost-of-living increase in their monthly benefits.
It would mark only the second year without an increase since automatic adjustments for inflation were adopted in 1975. The first year was this year.
Biden joins Obama
Vice President Joe Biden joined Obama at the event, the second of four large rallies designed to recapture some of the big-stage excitement that Obama created in 2008 with stirring speeches to thousands of young and first-time voters.
The president spoke to more than 17,000 people last week in Madison, Wisconsin, where many more thousands watched on screens in an overflow area. Several thousand turned out in Philadelphia on a beautiful autumn afternoon.
As Obama rallied Democrats, the national party put together a new television ad that accuses the business-friendly U.S. Chamber of Commerce of secretly using foreign money to support Republican candidates in the congressional election, which was already forecast to wipe out the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives.
Key Republican operatives hotly rejected the allegations that echo remarks by Obama in a speech last week.
Democrats presented no evidence to substantiate the charge against the Chamber of Commerce. The use of foreign funds for U.S. campaign activities is prohibited.