Obama Urges Supporters to Regain 2008 Energy

The Associated Press reports:

Even as President Barack Obama's re-election effort is powering toward an impressive early fundraising haul, campaign officials are trying to reassure donors who have concerns about a range of policy decisions and pace of change during Obama's first term.

Some top donors and even members of Obama's campaign team say that to replicate the success of 2008, the president and his advisers must reassure the fundraising community on a number of issues, from regulations on Wall Street to the Middle East peace process to the president's refusal to endorse gay marriage.

"It's not unfair to say the donor base, at least the significant-to-large donor base, has questions," former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, a Democrat, told reporters Thursday. But he said Obama "has good answers for all of them."

Obama seemed to acknowledge the dampened expectations Thursday during a fundraiser in Philadelphia, telling campaign donors that he knew there would be setbacks in governing, just like he faced setbacks during his campaign in 2008. But he appealed to supporters to show the same vigor they did more than two years ago to send him to victory.