Obama: 'I am a New Democrat'

President Barack Obama firmly resists ideological labels, but at the end of a private meeting with a group of moderate Democrats Tuesday afternoon he offered a statement of solidarity.

“I am a New Democrat,” he told the New Democrat Coalition, according to two sources at the White House session.

The group is comprised of centrist Democratic members of the House, who support free trade and a muscular foreign policy but are more moderate than the conservative Blue Dog coalition.

Obama made his comment in discussing his budget priorities and broader goals, also calling himself a “pro-growth Democrat” during the course of conversation.

White House officials stressed that Obama was not making any declarations, but rather pointing out that he was in sync with many of the group's principles.

The self-descriptions are striking, though, given Obama’s usual caution in being identified with any wing of his often-fractious party. He largely avoided the Democratic Leadership Council – the centrist group that Bill Clinton once led – and, with an eye on his national political standing, has always shied away from the liberal label, too.

As recently as last week, he steadfastly refused to define his governing philosophy.

Asked in an interview with the New York Times to describe if he was a liberal, socialist or progressive, Obama demurred.

“No, I’m not going to engage in that,” he said, before calling back the reporters later in the day to question why they would even ask if he is a socialist.

Surrounded by 65 moderate Democrats Tuesday in the State Dining Room, Obama was happy to portray himself as simpatico with a group of members who are largely socially liberal but fiscally more moderate to conservative.

He said he “supports free and fair trade,” according to one attendee, and noted that he was “very concerned about a return to protectionism.”

Obama made similar comments last month during his trip to Canada – America’s largest trading partner – and has shied away from the NAFTA-bashing he engaged in during last year’s Democratic primary.

Obama also said he would turn to the group – many members of which come from high-technology districts — for help on innovation and smart-growth issues

There is no New Democrat coalition in the Senate, so Obama had no previous affiliation to the group. His chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, was a member of the centrist group during his time in the House, though.

The meeting was part of Obama’s steady courtship of congressional Democrats, left, right and center, in advance of the debate over his proposed $3.6 trillion budget.

Last week Obama met with the left-leaning Congressional Black Caucus, before that he met with the conservative-leaning Blue Dogs.

A group of the New Democrats talked to reporters after the meeting.

“The president made a point to say that not everything in this budget everyone’s going to like — after all we are Democrats, we don’t agree half the time with each other anyway – but that, don’t be nitpicky,” said Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-NY). “Don’t pick out the one or two items that you don’t like and use that for the cause celebre for voting down or voting against that budget. He called upon us personally as New Democrats to support him in this effort.”

“We’re going to begin our conversation about the budget tomorrow,” said Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif), who leads the New Democrats. “The president made it very, very clear that his priority for us to be working on is passing this budget.”

“We’re all together with the president,” she said.