By MEGHASHYAM MALI
President Obama in an interview with ABC News insisted his administration could fix the rocky rollout of his health care reform bill and that his political troubles would pass, saying he had "nowhere to go but up."
"I've gone up and down pretty much consistently throughout," said Obama in an interview with Barbara Walters taped last week and aired on Friday. "But the good thing about when you're down is that usually you got nowhere to go but up."
Obama's comments come as the administration struggles to fix the healthcare.gov website and find a way to prevent millions of Americans from being dropped from their insurance plans.
The rollout of Obamacare has hit the president hard, with a number of polls showing him at record lows in approval rating and more Americans questioning his trustworthiness after his broken promise that consumers could keep their health plans despite new regulations.
Obama dismissed the suggestion that he had lost the trust of the public.
"I got re-elected in part because people did think I was trustworthy and they knew I was working on their behalf," said Obama.
"Very rarely are the good things that happen get the same attention as the things that aren't working so well," he added.
The administration has launched a tech surge, vowing to fix the website registering consumers in new insurance exchanges by the end of the month.
The White House has said the website will be working for the vast majority of users, but acknowledges that problems will persist after their Nov. 30 self-imposed deadline.
Critics say the botched rollout highlights the unworkability of Obama's signature legislative achievement and are calling for it to be delayed or repealed. The rollout has also worried Democrats, who fear Obamacare woes could cost them in the 2014 midterms.
The president, though, insisted he was "absolutely convinced" that his administration could fix problems and that the public would be convinced of the benefits of the health care reforms.
"I continue to believe and [I'm] absolutely convinced that at the end of the day, people are going to look back at the work we've done to make sure that in this country, you don't go bankrupt when you get sick, that families have that security," Obama said.
"That is going be a legacy I am extraordinarily proud of," said the president.
http://washingtonexaminer.com/obama-on-his-political-troubles-ive-got-nowhere-to-go-but-up/article/2539937