Obama, in Philadelphia, asks for enthusiasm, funds for Sestak

President Obama urged Democrats to recapture the enthusiasm of his historic 2008 campaign Monday as he raised cash for U.S. Senate candidate Joe Sestak and the national party at three Philadelphia events.

"This is what change looks like in a big, messy democracy like ours. It's not smooth, but it's worthwhile," Obama told about 65 elite donors who gave a total of $1 million to the national party to mingle with the president at the Pyramid Club in Center City.

Earlier, Obama attended two fund-raisers for Sestak at the Convention Center that were expected to generate about a half-million dollars, according to a Democratic source who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Before shaking the money trees, Obama decided to make an unannounced stop at the Reading Terminal Market to order cheesesteaks - with Cheez Whiz - and briefly get back in touch with the people.

The visit, though not unusual for any politician passing through Philadelphia, followed criticism over the weekend from former Secretary of State Colin Powell, a Republican who endorsed Obama in 2008, that the president had "lost some of his ability to connect" with the American public.

Before several hundred attendees at a general reception, Obama went through the standard exhortations about how the choice in this election couldn't be clearer and the stakes couldn't be higher.

Then the president addressed the mood of the electorate, as gauged by recent primary results that have not been pretty for incumbents, and said Sestak was not from the politics-as-usual mold.

"Everybody's been talking about insiders in Washington," Obama said. "Well, Joe's not one of the insiders who's been part of the problem. Instead, he's been solving problems in Washington. He didn't go there with a liberal or a conservative agenda - he went to serve the people of Pennsylvania, just like he's served his country for the past three decades."

As for Republicans, Obama said, "The easiest thing to do is to not put forward any specifics and plans, but just try to ride that anger and fear all the way to the election, and that's what's happening right now."

At the dinner for the Sestak fund-raiser, attended by about 250 people, Obama repeated some of the material from the general reception, but added a wrinkle: He said he had run into a person who told him he had to come back to Philadelphia to fire people up.

"Don't wait for me to come back to Philadelphia, don't wait for me to elect Joe Sestak," Obama said. "You go out there and elect Joe Sestak. Believe in yourselves."

The Sestak campaign sent e-mails late last week and was making phone calls Monday to urge attendance.

Sestak had said that he would welcome the president's help, but that all things being equal, he'd rather have Michelle Obama campaigning for him.

Obama's White House played an integral role in persuading Sen. Arlen Specter (D., Pa.) to switch from the Republican Party last year and placed its political weight behind the incumbent.

Obama allies pressured Sestak privately to reconsider the bid. At one point in the summer of 2009, Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel sent former President Bill Clinton to ask Sestak if he would drop out of the race in exchange for an appointment to a prestigious presidential advisory board on national security. Sestak said no.

He began his campaign saying he wanted to be Obama's "best ally" and that he would be more supportive than Specter, but now he argues that he's an independent outsider who was opposed by his own party.

Republican Senate nominee Pat Toomey said in a statement that he hoped to work with Obama as a member of the Senate on education reform and increasing U.S. exports. But he ripped the administration's economic program as ineffective in pumping up employment and growth.

"Bailing out failing companies, massive spending, huge tax increases, a cap-and-trade energy tax, and government-run health care - this agenda is keeping unemployment high, and Joe Sestak is in favor of all of it," Toomey said. "It's time for a change. We should end the bailouts, get spending under control, make the 2003 tax cuts permanent, and cut payroll taxes to encourage businesses to hire new workers."

And where was Specter on Monday?

He greeted Obama after the president arrived on Air Force One at Philadelphia International Airport.

He did not attend the Sestak fund-raisers.