President Obama conceded recently that his campaign message of changing the way Washington works is not viewed by the nation as a fulfilled goal.
Asked in an interview by Colorado's 9NEWS to judge his ability in the first two years of his presidency to alter what has long been characterized as a Washington that is broken, Obama admitted that people saw progress as minimal, but said that he had actually made some ground on the issue.
"I don't think there's a sense that I've been successful, I think that people feel that Washington still is dysfunctional," Obama said, before challenging that sentiment. "We've actually made some improvement, mainly in areas where I've got complete control."
Obama explained that he had taken measures to make the White House more transparent, improve the flow of information to the American people, and cut down on lobbyist influence on his administration, but that actually repairing Washington in the way people wanted to see it fixed would take a more concerted effort in the next two years.
"So there are a bunch of things that we've done, but I think people still feel that overall, Washington is about a lot of politics, it's lot of special interests, big money, but that ordinary people's voices too often aren't represented," Obama said. "My hope is that we are gonna be continuing to work towards rebuilding a sense of trust in government. That's gonna require some cooperation from Democrats and Republicans. I think part of what frustrates people is also just the constant partisanship and the constant looking at what's gonna happen in the next election instead of trying look out for the interests of the American people."
In an interview with CBS News's "60 Minutes" over the weekend, incoming Speaker of the House John Boehner may have led some to wonder if that sort of collaborative effort would be likely going forward, when he refused to say that compromise would be an option in dealing with Democrats during his tenure.
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