When Barack Obama’s presidential campaign announced that the Illinois senator would hold a “Roundtable on Economic Opportunity,” in Los Angeles, reporters could be forgiven for expecting a formal university or conference room setting — perhaps with bearded economists and captains of industry presenting reports and statistics in thick binders and weighing in on the major issues of the day.

But the event itself was decidedly more casual — taking place in the small backyard of Mimi Vitello, a resident of the Los Angeles suburb of Van Nuys who bought her home with an interest-only loan and is now struggling to make the payments.

The table was very small and — as promised — round, set up on the brown grass while Obama and his four guests, including Vitello, sat on plastic lawn chairs not far from her carefully pruned roses. Reporters and news crews were kept at bay behind a white rope.

Obama wore rolled up shirtsleeves and a blue tie and spoke casually to the press from his seat, before chatting with Vitello and his other guests about their struggles with credit card debt and home loans. A slightly confused dog barked intermittently from the next yard over.

The candidate commiserated with his guests about the struggles of making ends meet, telling a story about driving his future wife, Michelle, on dates in a car so full of rust holes that he could see the road as he drove and taking 10 years to pay off student loans.

Obama pledged government oversight of the mortgage and credit card industries but was asked by a member of the press about reports that he had raked in significant campaign contributions from Wall Street.

“We have raised money without taking it from PACs and federal lobbyists,” he responded. “There’s no doubt I’ve gotten money from Wall Street. That’s where the money is. But we have raised more money from small contributors than any other campaign.”

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– Photo credit: Reuters/Danny Moloshok