Filling Gaps in the White House Website, Part 45

On ABC's "Good Morning America," Elisabeth Leamy took a nonconfrontational approach to the president:

LEAMY: I just want to ask about -- it just seems so significant that you passed health care reform.

OBAMA: Yes.

LEAMY: You've passed financial regulatory reform, this historic legislation.

OBAMA: Right.

LEAMY: And yet the latest poll shows your job approval rating hitting a new low of 44 percent.

OBAMA: Right.

LEAMY: And many people say this apparent paradox is because of the economy.

So what I'm wondering is, has the economy gone from being something that you inherited to becoming your own problem?

OBAMA: Well, I think that happened the day I was sworn in. The -- look, look, you know, when you're president of the United States, you're responsible. You -- you inherit stuff. In -- in our case, we inherited, obviously, the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression. And we have taken a number of steps so that rather than losing 750,000 jobs a month, we're gaining jobs; rather than contracting at 6 percent a year, we're -- the economy is growing again.

But the hole that was dug was very deep. When you lose eight million jobs, you're not going to recover those jobs quickly. When companies were so fearful that they had to pull back that drastically, that creates a negative cycle that reversing is hard. And I think that we are on the right path. We're moving in the right direction. But it's hard and people are going to be impatient, understandably, because if you don't have a job right now or if you are trying to figure out how to pay the bills or if your 401(k) has recovered 60 percent, but it's still not what you expected and you're about to retire, you know, even if you hear the president say we're on the right track and we've improved, you're -- you're still going to be frustrated about how slow the progress is.

And so I am completely understanding of that. And that's why what I've tried to do is simply make the best choices for the American people each and every day. I wake up and I say to myself, what can I do today that's going to help ordinary, hardworking Americans get back on their feet and how can we make sure that this economy is growing and moving so that our kids have opportunity?