President Obama previewed the disappointment that members of his party are almost destined to eventually feel in a speech at the House Democratic Issues Conference on Thursday in Leesburg, Virginia. "What we've learned over the last four years -- or at least what I learned -- is that it won't be smooth," Obama said. "It won't be simple. There will be frustrations. There will be times that you guys are mad at me and I'll occasionally read about it," Obama said. Obama has read about it recently. In one of the approximately quarterly reports about Obama's failure to make friends with members of Congress, Politico reported this week there's "frustration and in some cases exasperation that a president who came from the Senate has no apparent appetite for cultivating relationships on Capitol Hill." The president did some cultivation Thursday.

Obama promised to hold 14 fundraisers this year -- including five for the House campaign committee and five for the Senate committee, The New York Times reports. The 2014 midterms are still 21 months away. But in a question-and-answer session with Democrats after his speech, Obama said he was "heavily invested" in winning a majority in the House for Democrats, NBC reports.

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Elspeth Reeve