Obama: GOP must put country ahead of party

“We do need everyone to be on board,” she said on NBC’s “Today” show.

Mrs. Solis said Mr. Obama “is very mindful of what the needs and concerns are of those individuals who have been out of work for so long.” But she also said the jobless have a responsibility to seek training in new skills, if necessary, to better prepare themselves for the kinds of jobs available in today’s economy.

Mr. Obama spent part of the holiday weekend at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland “putting the finishing touches” on the proposals and the speech, said spokesman Jay Carney.

“That process continues over the next few days, but he’s very far along,” Mr. Carney said.

In Detroit on Monday, Mr. Obama was also expected to tout his efforts to save the auto industry and millions of jobs by providing federal bailouts in 2009 for General Motors Corp. and Chrysler Group LLC. The AFL-CIO rally was being held in a GM parking lot.

Mr. Obama won Michigan in the 2008 presidential election, and the economically challenged state is crucial to his re-election prospects. The state unemployment rate was 10.9 percent in July, above the national average for that month. The Detroit-area jobless rate was even higher, at 14.1 percent in July.

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