President Obama was met with cheers and jeers Thursday in his first visit to San Francisco as commander in chief, telling a friendly crowd at a sold-out Democratic Party fundraiser that while "some of our opponents think they can wear us out, I'm not tired - I'm refreshed."

America is "closer than we have ever been" on health care reform, he said, and promised to follow through with efforts to develop green technology and tackle difficult problems around the globe.

"Iraq was hard. Afghanistan is harder," Obama told supporters. "Iran, seeking to develop nuclear weapons, is hard. The Middle East peace process, that's hard. These are not problems that are going to be solved overnight. They're not going to be solved in nine months. They're not going to be solved in 18 months" and "maybe not in 36 months," he said.

"We're just getting started."

Obama's appearance at the fundraiser presented him a friendlier reception than one earlier in the day in New Orleans, where he took criticism from some officials for what they considered a too-brief stopover to hear about the continued fallout from Hurricane Katrina.

In a city that former President George W. Bush never visited while in office, Obama was greeted with wild applause from a capacity audience of more than 900 Democratic supporters who paid $500 to $1,000 to see him at the Westin St. Francis Hotel, where he starred at a reception to benefit the Democratic National Committee.

Earlier, he dropped into an exclusive VIP dinner at the hotel's penthouse for about 160 high-level party donors, some of whom wrote checks of $30,400 or more for a pair of tickets and the privilege of shaking hands and taking a picture with him.

The two events were expected to raise about $3 million, Democratic Party officials said.

Among those in the crowd were House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco; Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, former Democratic state Controller Steve Westly, a major fundraiser for Obama; Wade Randlett, a Silicon Valley insider and key Democratic fundraiser; former state Democratic Party Chairman Art Torres; former San Francisco Supervisor Amos Brown; and Eric Jaye, the former chief strategist to Mayor Gavin Newsom.

Newsom, a candidate for governor in next year's election who served as a co-chairman of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign, was attending his own campaign fundraiser in Texas, along with a meeting on innovation.

Out on the streets

On the streets outside the hotel, Obama's reception was less enthusiastic, with protesters on the left and right hurling criticisms of his policies and leadership style.

"People in the Bay Area are very sensitive to the two critical issues right now - health care and Afghanistan - and they're unhappy on both fronts," said Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the anti-war group Code Pink. "They want single-payer and they want an exit strategy."

Obama is backing health care reforms that include private and government insurance plans, while he is considering whether to send more troops to Afghanistan amid a Taliban insurgency.

Benjamin said she was disappointed Obama wasn't being seen outside high-priced political events.

"It would have been good for the president to hear from the Bay Area, and it would have helped to release his inner progressive," she said. "We know it's there somewhere. You just have to dig deep these days."

Jodie Evans, a co-founder of Code Pink, paid $30,400 for a pair of tickets to the VIP dinner, where she presented Obama with a petition from women in Afghanistan urging him not to send additional troops. Evans said she spent several minutes discussing the war there with the president and told him that the country's women "want a place at the table" in resolving the conflict.

'Issue of the hour'

Pelosi, who introduced the president, said that "health care is the issue of the hour." Obama, she said, has been a president who knew that reform wasn't "about the details of the policy, it was about something bigger. It was about our moral responsibility ... social responsibility and the character of our country."

The Obama visit to San Francisco began in late afternoon when Air Force One landed at San Francisco International Airport, and the president - after a bite to eat - was whisked downtown.

He planned to stay overnight at the Intercontinental Hotel, and there were no official plans for any public events or special meetings with city or state leaders.

The White House said he would leave this morning for Houston to attend a "Thousand Points of Light" event with former President George H.W. Bush.

Before he landed in San Francisco, Obama took heat from Louisiana voters and elected officials Thursday for making a whirlwind trip of less than four hours to highlight the continuing damage from 2005's Hurricane Katrina.

"Four years ago, right after the storm, a lot of people here felt forgotten," he said. "But because everybody worked hard, everybody kept hopeful, everybody was determined to rebuild - you now see a school that is doing much better than it was ever doing before the storm."

Obama then went to a town hall meeting with a selected audience at the University of New Orleans. The quick schedule didn't sit well with some political leaders.

Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., also said that the president's trip there "could have been longer" and acknowledged that Louisiana residents were "a little disappointed and frustrated, but understanding that the president has a lot on his plate."

Obama defended himself Thursday, reassuring the town hall meeting that his administration is "working as hard as we can, as quickly as we can" to address their concerns about the lingering devastation from the 2005 catastrophe.