Rice: Obama not feeling down over low poll numbers
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama is not depressed over his low job approval ratings, a top adviser said on Tuesday. A Washington Post-ABC News poll on Tuesday said the troubled rollout of the Affordable Care Act had pushed Obama down to a 42 percent job approval rating, the lowest he has experienced in this survey. Other polls have shown a similar picture. The Post-ABC poll said opposition to the healthcare law hit a record high with 57 percent saying they opposed it. Susan Rice, Obama's national security adviser and a long-time member of Obama's inner circle, told CNN that Obama is not letting the polls bother him. "He can never get too up or too down based on what a poll here or a poll there may say. He's been around long enough to know that the business of serving the American people is a tough and sometimes thankless job," she said. Pressed on whether Obama was a little disappointed by his poor showing, Rice said: "I think he's certainly frustrated but he is by no means depressed or down. He is his normal, active and enthusiastic self," she said. Obama, in a Wall Street Journal forum on Tuesday, seemed to reference the polls in complaining of a "stubborn cycle of crisis politics" in Washington and saying both sides need to work together. "More obstruction, more brinkmanship won't help anybody. It doesn't help folks politically. My understanding is nobody in this town is doing particularly well at the moment when it comes to the opinions of the American people, but it certainly doesn't help anybody economically," he said. (Reporting by Steve Holland; editing by Jackie Frank)
