President Barack Obama urged legislators yesterday to agree quickly on core elements of health care reform, signalling he might support a scaled-back overhaul after his Democrats lost a key Senate seat.
Mr Obama acknowledged that voter anger helped carry Republican Scott Brown to a stunning victory in Tuesday's Massachusetts election, which has imperilled the president's health care effort and the rest of his legislative agenda.
"People are angry, they are frustrated. Not just because of what's happened in the last year or two years, but what's happened over the last eight years," Mr Obama told ABC News on the anniversary of his first year in office.
Pushed on the defensive, the White House said it may retool its strategy for selling Mr Obama's agenda while pressing ahead with his priorities of job creation, climate change and financial regulatory reform as well as health care.
The president and his aides scrambled to limit the fallout after Mr Brown's victory which was widely seen as reflecting public anxiety over the president's policies in the face of double-digit unemployment and a sluggish recovery.
The election upset sent shudders through Democrats facing tough races in November's midterm elections, when Republicans hope weaknesses exposed in the liberal stronghold of Massachusetts will threaten Democratic control of Congress.
Mr Brown's win deprived the Democrats of a crucial 60th Senate vote they need to pass the health care bill, Mr Obama's top legislative priority, and push through other big measures.
Mr Obama's aides said they bore some of the blame for the loss of the Senate seat. The long, bitter health care debate had not played well with the public, they said.
The president had faced criticism for emphasising health care too much instead of focusing firmly on jobs and the economy.
Weighing in a day after the Massachusetts ballot, Mr Obama made clear he is sticking with his health care push but hinted he might give ground. The White House stressed, however, Obama was still dedicated to broad reform.
"I would advise that we try to move quickly to coalesce around those elements in the package that people agree on," Mr Obama told ABC.
"We know that we need insurance reform. . . . We know that we have to have some form of cost containment," he said. "And we know that small businesses are going to need help so that they can provide health insurance for their families. Those are the core, some of the core elements of this bill."
The election upset also compounded problems confronting Mr Obama on the one-year anniversary of the day he took office with soaring rhetoric and hopes for change.
His approval rating has fallen from 70 per cent-plus at his inauguration to around 50 per cent now, among the lowest of recent presidents at this stage.
Mr Obama said he had made mistakes during the first year, but the big issues had to be tackled. "We immediately were confronted with just stacks of tough decisions that had to be made. During the course of this year we've had to make some decisions that were unpopular. We've made some mistakes. I've personally made some mistakes," he told ABC News.
"But what I can tell you is, a year later, I've never been more optimistic about the possibilities of America. I'm certainly a lot more optimistic than I was a year ago."
In the interview, he reminded Americans of the deep economic problems he inherited and the public animosity toward the previous administration. "The same thing that swept Scott Brown into office swept me into office," Mr Obama said.
Reuters