Aditha Sambamurthy/Bay Citizen

President Obama at Facebook, April 20, 2011

President Obama kicked off a twofold campaign on Wednesday against Republican opponents — both his budget foes on Capitol Hill and the challengers to his re-election in 2012 — in a setting that felt like home turf: the Palo Alto headquarters of Facebook, surrounded by hundreds of enthusiastic young employees.

At an event dubbed the “Shared Responsibility and Shared Prosperity Town Hall,” Obama spoke for more than an hour, taking questions from Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder, the company’s employees and viewers across the country watching the stream online.

The West Coast tour represents the president’s first major road trip since the bitterly partisan budget debate in Washington nearly shut down government two weeks ago, and Obama seized the opportunity to directly pitch his deficit-cutting plan, which combines some spending cuts with tax increases on the wealthy.

But the trip, the president’s second visit in the past three months, is also about raising money for his party and for his 2012 re-election campaign. Immediately following the Facebook event, Obama headed to San Francisco, where he will make an appearance at a $35,800-a-person fundraiser dinner in Pacific Heights, to be followed by another fundraiser at Nob Hill Masonic Auditorium. His Bay Area visit will conclude Thursday morning after another fundraiser breakfast at the St. Regis Hotel in San Francisco.

His efforts to reach out to young voters and to utilize social-networking services like Facebook may be just as critical as his fundraising as he prepares to do battle in 2012. Obama aides have said the campaign would roll out a mobilization effort even greater than the one they relied on in 2008.

On Wednesday, Obama was able to speak directly to a nationwide audience while enjoying an obvious rapport with Zuckerberg, the 26-year-old moderator who often seemed to be in awe of the president.

At one point, Zuckerberg paused before introducing Obama and said with a grin: "Sorry, I'm kind of nervous, we have the president of the United States here."

Even as political analysts begin to warn of the pitfalls of Obama’s association with Silicon Valley firms that are facing regulatory scrutiny, Facebook’s executives were unabashed in displaying their affinity for the president.

Sheryl Sandberg, COO, noted in her introductory remarks that the president is one of the most popular people on Facebook, with 19 million “likes.” She gushed: “Welcome home, Mr. President” to loud applause from Facebook employees.

The president was just as chummy with Zuckerberg.

“My name is Barack Obama and I’m the guy who got Mark to wear a jacket and tie. I’m very proud of that,” the President joked, before inviting Zuckerberg to take off his jacket and removing his own.

The coziness on policy issues was evident, too. Zuckerberg, who donated $100 million of his money to Newark schools, complimented the president on his Race to the Top program. The president, in turn, gave Zuckerberg a verbal pat on the back for his involvement with Newark schools.

Obama touched on energy, education and immigration policy, but the majority of his remarks was directed toward his budget plan and health care, which both parties acknowledge is a major element of any deficit-cutting scheme.

Obama repeatedly warned against the sharp cuts to Medicare and Medicaid detailed in the budget plan approved this month by the House and drafted by Rep. Paul Ryan, which he called “radical.”

“They don’t really want to make the health care system more efficient and cheaper,” he said. “What they really want to do is push the health care inflation onto you.”

“I think it’s very important for us to have a basic social safety net,” he said. “We’re only going to be able to do it by taking a balanced approach, and that’s what this big debate is all about.”

In his closing remarks, Obama spoke directly to Facebook's young workforce — some of who may have been involved in his campaign, he noted — to not become “frustrated and cynical about our democracy.”

“Rather than be discouraged, I hope everybody is willing to double down,” he said.

At the end, he pleaded with Facebook employees to put the “imagination that you put into Facebook” into the political process.

“I can’t do it by myself,” he said. “The only way it happens is if all of you still get involved, still get engaged.”

Then, to roaring applause, Zuckerberg handed Obama a hooded sweatshirt with "Facebook" emblazoned across the front.

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