Protesters Greet President's Motorcade As He Visits La Jolla

President Barack Obama was in San Diego on Thursday raising money for Democratic congressional candidates.

Supporters paid thousands of dollars to be in the audience at the La Jolla home of Qualcomm co-founder Irwin Jacobs, but the reception on the street was not as welcoming.

Opponents of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline lined Torrey Pines Road. They held signs and chanted.

It was all to get a few seconds of the president's attention as his motorcade drove by en route to the noon luncheon.

Masada Disenhouse works with San Diego 350, a liberal group concerned with climate change. She says the pipeline would carry dirty tar-sand oil from Canada to Texas.

"He is at three fundraisers this week in California. At each one of them people are out there telling him he needs to stop the Keystone Pipeline," Disenhouse said.

She pointed to the group of about 100 people gathered along Obama's route.

"We think that as he travels around the country and gets that message repeatedly. Even if it's only for five seconds at a time, he knows that people are really behind stopping the pipeline."

It's the president's job to decide whether the pipeline will move forward because it crosses the U.S.-Canada border. Obama has already postponed a decision several times.

There were also a handful of critics from the other side of the political spectrum.

Debbie Linson said she joined the conservative Tea Party when Barack Obama became president and she's been working to get him out of office since.

"He shouldn't be above the law," Linson said. "He and (Attorney General) Eric Holder pick and chose the laws they want to enforce, and ones the don't want to enforce, they don't. And that's not up to them."

The president didn't spend a lot of time in San Diego.

After just a few hours on the ground he was off to two more fundraisers in San Jose.