So what grade does President Obama give himself after nearly a year in office?
“A good solid B-plus,” he said, answering a question from Oprah Winfrey during a television special that aired on Sunday evening.
Mr. Obama said that he inherited the biggest set of challenges of any president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt, but he ticked through a list of items that he called accomplishments: stabilizing the economy, withdrawing troops from Iraq, settling on the “best possible plan” in Afghanistan, improving America’s image around the world and finding international consensus on disabling nuclear weapons in Iran and North Korea.
And, he said, the goal of overhauling health care is moving closer to reality.
So what would make the year better?
“If I get health care signed, we tip into A-minus,” Mr. Obama said.
The question was part of an hourlong special that aired on ABC, which featured Ms. Winfrey visiting her old friends from Chicago and taking a holiday tour of the White House. The program included an interview with the president and the first lady, Michelle Obama.
Near the end of the television special, as Ms. Winfrey revisited the issue of his self-imposed grade, she reminded Mr. Obama that his poll numbers have declined.
“I’m surprised they held up as well as they did,” he replied, adding that he instructed his advisers at the outset of the administration not to “play to the polls,” because he predicted that his approval rating would “start crashing” after six months.
“It was inevitable because we’ve got 10 percent unemployment,” Mr. Obama said. “People are hurting out there.”
But still, Mr. Obama gives himself a B-plus.
The electorate, of course, will have their chance to rate him in 2012. But for now, what grade would you give him?
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