Obama: D.C. politics 'perversely partisan'

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 25 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama told a Democratic Party fundraiser in Los Angeles Monday politics in Washington is "still perversely partisan."

Speaking to a small audience that included celebrities such as actor Will Smith and NBA star turned entrepreneur Magic Johnson, the president said his administration needs a second term to keep up the work of its first.

"We've made great progress but we've got so much more work to do," he said. "Obviously in Washington, the politics that I think people are hoping for is not what they're getting. It's still dysfunctional. It's still perversely partisan."

Obama repeated a theme he has turned to numerous times, telling his audience the 2012 campaign "will not be as sexy as" the 2008 election.

"Back then it was still fresh and new," he said. "I didn't have any gray hair. Everybody loved the 'Hope' posters and all that. This time it's -- we've got to grind it out a little bit.

"But the cause is the same. And my passion is the same. And my commitment is the same."

Addressing an audience of about 35 or 40 people at an event at which tickets sold for $35,800 apiece, Obama talked about his new program to refinance mortgage. He got a laugh from Smith and Johnson when he said the program will help people refinance at lower rates so they would then have more money to "shop, go to Will's movies …'' and patronize Johnson's businesses.

Before the fundraiser, the president stopped in at a waffle house in a predominantly Latino LA neighborhood and sat at the counter to order meals, evidently to go, for himself and several administration aides.

He greeted several diners, shaking hands and hugging at least one patron.