Obama Takes Up New Agenda Item After Battering On Healthcare

It was a sign Obama may be slowly turning the corner from one of the worst crises of his five years in office, emerging bruised and weakened from the troubled rollout of his signature healthcare law, even as big challenges remain."For decades, Congress has voted to offer relief to job-seekers - including when the unemployment rate was lower than it is today," Obama said in his weekly address. "But now that economic lifeline is in jeopardy." The unemployment benefits expire at year's end.

Attending memorial services in South Africa next week for late South African President Nelson Mandela and then launching into holiday season festivities will also allow for a change of subject from the healthcare controversy.

Obama was buoyed too by news on Friday that the U.S. jobless rate hit a five-year low of 7.0 percent.

"For decades, Congress has voted to offer relief to job-seekers - including when the unemployment rate was lower than it is today. But now that economic lifeline is in jeopardy. All because Republicans in this Congress - which is on track to be the most unproductive in history - have so far refused to extend it," said Obama

But Republicans say the glitch-prone HealthCare.gov website is only a manifestation of a deeply flawed healthcare law in which many more Americans stand to see health insurance plans canceled and to encounter sticker shock when they sign up for Obamacare.

The healthcare law, which was passed in 2010, aims to make affordable healthcare insurance available to millions of people who have no coverage.

The Obama administration's next challenge is convincing hundreds of thousands of Americans needing insurance by Jan. 1 to give the website a try before Dec. 23. Officials must make sure the site can support the traffic, and fix problems on the back end where the website transfers enrollment information to insurance companies.

While senior White House aides are cautiously optimistic that improvements to the website are removing many of the glitches, they know the problems are far from over.

Obama's job approval rating remains low, taking a hit from the healthcare woes and the earlier budget battle with congressional Republicans that led to a government shutdown and a close brush with a debt default.

The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll put Obama's approval rating at 38 percent, against 55 percent who disapprove, among the lowest rankings of his presidency.