BLITZER: President Obama is hoping his time isn't up when it comes to rallying support from a key voting bloc. We're talking about African- Americans. But amidst soaring unemployment and serious poverty across the country, particularly among blacks, that may be easier said than done. Listen to what the president had to say to the Congressional Black Caucus dinner Saturday night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't have time to complain. I'm going to press on. I expect all of you to march with me and press on. Take off your bedroom slippers. Put on your marching shoes. Shake it off. Stop complaining. Stop grumbling. Stop crying. We are going to press on. We've got work to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BLITZER: Let's talk about that with Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters of California. I think he is complaining about you, among others, right?

REP. MAXINE WATERS, (D) CALIFORNIA: I don't think so.

BLITZER: Because you've been complaining that he hasn't been doing enough lately. You've been making statements along those lines. Cornell West has, others.

WATERS: No. Wolf, I don't complain. I work. As a matter of fact, the Black Caucus have been hard at work. We travelled to five states. We took up helping people to get jobs.

BLITZER: That was exactly when he was in Iowa meeting with largely white groups, right?

WATERS: That is part of the time.

BLITZER: Do you remember what you said at the time?

WATERS: Yes. What I said was, first of all, the audience in Detroit said to us, why don't you do something? Why don't you make the president do something? They were really at us. And I raised the question, are you ready for a conversation about how you feel?

And we are now into that conversation. Yes, we want to see the president more in African-American communities. But the work that we did is what caused the conversation it take place. We focused on what needs are and the president heard us.

And because the president heard us he was saying "African-American" and "black" for the first time in the speech. When he was talking about complaining, we don't know who he was talking to. He couldn't have been talking to the black caucus. We have been working very hard.

BLITZER: I think he was complaining, what he was talking about corn el west has been talking about him, as you know. And at least remarks that you have made, and other White House officials have said, why is Maxine Waters complaining so much? Doesn't she realize he wants to improve the economy and the job situation for everybody?

WATERS: Maxine Waters does not complain. Maxine Waters does two things -- public policy and organizing. I don't go around complaining, and so I don't think he was talking to us or the people in that room. The people in that room for the most part are people who came out of civil rights movement, who marched and worked hard and have been doing if t for years.

We are pleased the president is now focused and he made a speech, the likes of which he had not made before, where he talked about African- Americans and the fact that blacks were unemployed.

BLITZER: Nearly three years into his presidency, until now he hasn't addressed concerns of poverty in the African-American community? WATERS: What I'm saying there has been no focus at all.

BLITZER: No focus -- what do you mean by that?

WATERS: You know and radio stations and television stations have been talking about the high unemployment rate, 16.7 percent, 40 to 50 percent of African-American youth. No, we have not heard the president focus on that or talk about that despite the fact it is getting worse and worse. I expect this unemployment may go up as high as 20 percent in the African-American community.

But we will support the American Jobs Act. We'll support this president. We think we help him with this base constituency. We believe that the work that we have done will help him to begin to know how he must target, to those communities most in need, whether it is the urban community or rural community. You have to put the resources where the problems are, where the need is. We think we have gotten him focused to do that.

BLITZER: Finally, after two and half, three years --

WATERS: We finally got him to focus, yes.

BLITZER: So you will take off your slippers and get out there and march with him?

WATERS: I've never owned a pair of bedroom slippers.

(LAUGHTER)

WATERS: In fact anybody who knows Maxine Waters knows I'm a fighter. I came to Washington with that identity.

BLITZER: But he brought you into this process, you and others members of the Congressional Black Caucus, to aggressively address these issues?

WATERS: Well, actually we started with the jobs fairs that we were doing. We said basically we can't sit here in Washington, D.C. and simply do one minute and five minutes. We have to get out there, first of all, let the people know that we feel their pain and we understand the desperation in these communities.

And once we were out there into these town hall meetings, they let us know that they truly are in pain. And so we have the job fairs where we connected them with employers from all over the country, and we brought the message back to Washington, D.C. and this president got it. I mean, he was at that Black Caucus talking about African- American unemployment because of the work that we did.

BLITZER: The Cornell West and Ralph Nader throw out the possibility of them running to challenge the president for the Democratic nomination, not necessarily thinking they are going to win, they are not going to win. But to force them to focus more on these issues instead of becoming more moderate it get more in line with the so- called progressive or liberal views. Is that a good idea? WATERS: The Black Caucus doesn't know anything about that. We are involved with the work we do as public policymakers. We are involved with whatever influence we have with focus on the issues of concern to our communities. So we don't know. I haven't heard the discussion. And we support this president. And we want him to get the best out of his constituency, that base constituency, that base constituency that gives him so much support. We think we are helping him with the work that we do.

BLITZER: So you're not complaining, you're not grumbling, you're not crying, he is not talking about you.

WATERS: Maxine Waters doesn't cry. Maxine Waters works.

BLITZER: Keep on working.

WATERS: Thank you.

BLITZER: Thank you so much for coming in.