Obama taking economic message to Leno

PLEDGING HELP FOR VETERANS - President Obama greeted war veteran Mahdee Abdul Sabir yesterday during a visit to the Department of Veterans Affairs. The president marked the 20th anniversary of the department attaining Cabinet-level status with a call to expand the country's commitment to veterans as more troops return from the Iraq war. (Reuters Photo / Jason Reed)

President Obama plans to take his economic recovery message to a different forum this week - "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."

Obama is scheduled to be a guest Thursday night in what NBC said yesterday will be the first appearance by a sitting president on a late-night talk show.

Earlier Thursday on a California swing, Obama plans to tour the Edison International electric vehicle technical center in Pomona, and tomorrow he will hold a town hall meeting in Costa Mesa.

A new poll reflects the challenge that Obama faces in dealing with public concerns about the recession. A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released yesterday found that Obama's approval rating, while still high, is dropping: 64 percent, down from 76 percent in early February. And on the economy, a smaller number, 59 percent, approve of what Obama is doing.

But if the economy doesn't improve over the next year, 54 percent would blame former President George W. Bush and the Republicans and only 32 percent Obama and the Democrats, the poll found.

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Cheney said Sunday on CNN that Obama's national security decisions are threatening the nation's safety and that the president is using the economic crisis to expand government's role in healthcare, energy, education, and other areas.

"Well, I guess Rush Limbaugh was busy, so they trotted out the next most popular member of the Republican cabal," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs quipped.

Gibbs said his sarcasm shouldn't obscure the serious policy differences between Obama and the Bush-Cheney administration and the changes Obama is trying to make.

"I would say that the president has made quite clear that keeping the American people safe and secure is the most serious job that he has each and every day," Gibbs said. "I think not taking economic advice from Dick Cheney would be maybe the best possible outcome of yesterday's interview."

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He is enlisting Organizing for America, the post-election vehicle for his millions of grass-roots supporters, plus the Democratic Party and its allies in labor and advocacy groups to build support for the $3.6 trillion blueprint that includes ambitious proposals on healthcare, energy, education, and more. Mitch Stewart, director of Organizing for America, urged supporters yesterday to go out in their neighborhoods this weekend to build backing for Obama's budget.

"Partisan voices and special interests are showing real resistance to President Obama's call for making the necessary reforms and investments in energy, healthcare, and education," Stewart wrote Obama backers in an e-mail. "That's why we need to bring the conversation back into homes and communities across America."

Americans United for Change, a coalition of labor and liberal groups, is running a national cable TV ad that attacks Republicans for not offering anything but opposition to the budget. "So what kind of budget have the Republicans proposed to get us out of the mess they created? Here are the details," the announcer says, followed by a blank screen and the sound of crickets chirping.

A spokesman for Representative John Boehner, the top House Republican, noted that Republicans offered an alternative to the $787 billion stimulus package and blamed Democrats for freezing the GOP out of the legislative debate.

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