Obama has been less guarded in what he says. Obama: 'So sue me'

President Barack Obama has been looser in recent weeks, less guarded in what he says and more eager to venture outside the presidential bubble — and he confirmed Friday that the shift isn’t an imagined one.

“Sometimes I’m supposed to be politic about how I say things, but I’m finding lately I just want to say what’s on my mind,” Obama said in a speech Friday in Minneapolis.


While Obama has been more relaxed publicly for the past few weeks, his mood fits with a deeper shift this year, which POLITICO noted earlier this month, as he comes to grips with the realities of being a second-term president struggling to get his priorities through Congress.

( Also on POLITICO: How immigration reform died)

Obama went on to express what was on his mind, including his irritation over the House GOP’s plans to sue him for using his executive power. “I might once have said, ‘I want to raise the minimum wage so sue me if I do.’ I just didn’t think they would take me literally,” he said Friday.

He also offered congressional Republicans an opportunity to work with him on immigration reform. “You’re mad at me for a broken immigration system? Let’s hold hands” and make progress, he said, before moving to dismiss that possibility.

“They don’t do anything, except block me and call me names,” Obama said.

As he did Thursday during the first of his two days on the road in the Twin Cities, reaching out to ordinary Americans with a day-in-the-life tour, Obama railed against cynicism.

“The critics, the cynics in Washington, they’ve written me off more times that I can count,” he said. “Don’t think that we’re not making progress. So yeah, it’s easy to be cynical. In fact, it’s kind of trendy. Cynicism passes for wisdom.”

But, he added, “cynicism doesn’t invent the Internet. Cynicism doesn’t give women the right to vote. Cynicism is a choice — hope is a better choice.”

This article tagged under: White House

Barack Obama