Top Obama Advisor says he is ‘losing patience’ with the White House

9/9/09-by Paula Brooks
Voicing the ever-increasing concerns and frustrations that many of President Barack Obama’s liberal allies are feeling, Steve Hildebrand, Obama’s deputy campaign manager during last years successful drive for the White House, said Yesterday he is “losing patience” with the White House over issues ranging from Obama’s handling of LGBT rights to his lack of leadership on health care reform.

Hildebrand told POLITICO:

“I am one of the millions of frustrated Americans who want to see Washington do more than it’s doing right now… I’m not going to just sit by the curb and let these folks get away with a lack of performance for the American people,” he said, speaking of Washington’s Democratic leadership as a whole. “I want change just as much as a majority of Americans do, and I’m one of the many Americans who are losing patience.”

Hildebrand is president of Hildebrand Strategies, a Democratic consulting firm and a former political director for the DSCC, who has spent more than twenty years organizing high profile campaigns. He is recognized as one of the best political strategists in the Democratic Party and was instrumental in Obama’s early victories over Sen. Hillary Clinton in Iowa and South Carolina.

Besides helping organize the ground game for Obama’s campaign, Hildebrand also took a leading role in trying to win support from the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community for Obama’s candidacy and was responsible for a conference call last year designed to reconcile Obama with the LGBT supporters of Hilary Clinton. Hildebrand also helped quiet displeasure in the gay community after the campaign asked an anti-gay minister to open a gospel show in South Carolina.

Last month Hildebrand also has criticized Blue Dog Democrats in Congress in addition to Obama during a national Stonewall Democrats meeting in San Diego for their willingness to sell out the party’s liberal ideals and the reluctance to address promises made to the LGBT community during the campaign.

Hildebrand’s remarks prompted questions to Press Secretary Robert Gibbs during yesterdays White House Press briefing.

Gibbs said the White House is not hearing anything new from Hildebrand.

“We all know and love Steve Hildebrand,” Gibbs said, adding that “Steve’s frustration is the frustration of people not only in this town, but a lot of people outside of this town, and that is Washington’s inability to address its big problems and get something done.”