Obama campaign turns on Washington

President Obama’s reelection campaign isn’t very fond of the goings-on in Washington, according to a fundraising email sent to supporters late Friday.

Jim Messina, the campaign manager for the Chicago-based reelection effort for the Washington-living president, wrote the pitch “to make sure you know about” an appearance by Big Oil executives in the Senate during which they fought back against Democrats’ efforts to strip tax breaks and subsidies from them.

{mosads}”It’s a head-smackingly obvious example of how broken Washington is that there’s even a question about this. These companies don’t need and don’t deserve taxpayer money — especially with a budget deficit to close and gas prices at or near record highs,” Messina wrote.

“Even worse is the fact that when the Senate tries to strip these oil company giveaways, it’s likely that a minority of senators will block a vote from happening. And even if the Senate manages to pass a bill eliminating the giveaways, there’s little chance it will be brought up for a vote in the House.”

The email was delivered just hours before Obama announced in his Saturday address that the White House is expanding lease sales of government land in Alaska to oil companies for exploration.

The president’s campaign highlighting that “Washington doesn’t work” reflects the attitude of most Americans, according to recent polls.

Only 24 percent approve of the way Congress is handling its job, Gallup found this week, and that number is up 7 percentage points from last month. Gallup attributes the bump to the killing of Osama bin Laden.

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Obama’s job approval numbers are somewhat better than those for the legislature. The president stands at 50 percent approval, according to Gallup’s daily tracking, also up since the killing of bin Laden.

In a matchup versus an unnamed Republican candidate, Gallup found that 43 percent supported the president and 40 percent supported the Republican, putting Obama’s slight lead within the poll’s margin of error.