Obama: We're not as divided as pundits say

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LOS ANGELES, Oct. 7 (UPI) -- President Obama campaigned in Los Angeles Sunday night, telling supporters he's working for all Americans and "we're not as divided as our politics suggest."

Addressing a crowd at Nokia Theater that included George Clooney, Jennifer Hudson, Jon Bon Jovi, Katy Perry and Stevie Wonder, the Democratic president delivered his stump speech, noting his accomplishments during his first term and that unemployment was down to 7.8 percent from a high of 10 percent.

"Manufacturing is coming back to America. Home values are on the rise," he said.

"Now, we're not there yet. We've still got too many Americans looking for work, too many families who can't pay the bills, too many homes underwater, too many young people graduating with too much debt

"But if there's one thing I know, we've come a long way and we've come too far to turn back now. The last thing we can afford right now is four years of the very same policies that led us to this crisis in the first place. I cannot allow that to happen. I will not let it happen."

Obama said he recognizes that 47 percent of voters didn't cast their ballot for him in 2008 but he works for them nonetheless.

"I'll be fighting just as hard for you as I am for somebody who did vote for me -- because I'm not fighting to create Republican jobs or Democratic jobs; I'm fighting to create American jobs," Obama said. 'I'm not fighting to improve schools in red states or blue states; I'm fighting to improve schools in the United States.

"The values we believe in don't belong to any one group or one party -- they're not black or white, or Asian or Latino or Native American, gay, straight, abled, disabled -- they are American values; they belong to all of us.

"And I still believe we're not as divided as our politics suggest. I still believe we've got more in common than the pundits tell us. And most of all, I still believe in you. I still believe in you, and I am asking you to keep on believing in me."

He said he's asking for their vote and their help campaigning so he can "finish what we started in 2008."