Obama heads west to raise money, energize liberals

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is heading to the West Coast to raise money from liberal donors and try to sell his new jobs plan.

Obama has fundraisers events Sunday in two reliably Democratic states, Washington and California. He’s expected to keep up his newly aggressive tone of taking Republicans head on.

That may be welcome news for party activists who’ve been discouraged by some of the president’s compromises with the GOP.

Obama has a town hall-style event hosted by social networking site LinkedIn in California on Monday and ends the trip with a jobs speech in Denver.

Polling shows that Obama’s approval ratings are sagging, but he probably doesn’t risk losing Washington or California in 2012.

Still, supporters aren’t as enthusiastic as they once were, something Obama will try to change.