and he has to continue to take this advice himself

Obama to Democrats: We must lead

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama implored Senate Democrats on Wednesday to stay aggressive in pushing their agenda despite the loss of one vital seat, saying: "We still have to lead."

Speaking to his party's senators at their strategy conference, Obama reminded Democrats they still hold a 59-41 majority, one shy of the 60 needed to overcome Republican filibuster delay tactics. Democrats lost a "super majority" when Republican Scott Brown won in a special election upset in Massachusetts.

Obama said that for Democrats searching for a lesson from that election, "The answer is not to do nothing."

"The American people are out of patience with business as usual," he said.

Obama urged Democrats to push legislation that, above all else, will help people get jobs. He encouraged them to avoid the temptation to "tread lightly, keep your head
down and play it safe."

The session came as part of broad outreach by Obama — to his party, his political opposition and a disgruntled public — as he seeks to get his agenda back on track.

Yet Obama used particularly harsh language toward Republicans, part of a deliberate strategy to be more combative with the opposition party. He chided Republican senators for, in his view, trying to gum up the works and routinely using the filibuster tactic.

He said Democrats in 2009 had to cast more votes to overcome that procedural delay than were needed in the 1950s and 1960s combined. "That's 20 years of obstruction packed into just one," he said.

To Democrats seated in front of him at their conference at Washington's Newseum, Obama said: "We've got to finish the job on health care. We've got to finish the job on financial regulatory reform. We've got to finish the job, even though it's hard."

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Obama needs to continue to step up and make his voice heard and get the cowardly Dems to actually do something. They don't seem to understand that they are in political trouble because of their inaction, not because of anything that they have accomplished, since it appears to the American people that they haven't really accomplished anything.