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"Sometimes I get a little frustrated when folks just don't want to see that even if we don't get everything, we're getting something," he pointed out.

For a large proportion of Americans, it seems that "something' isn't good enough. And Obama hinted that he, too, could be one of them: "There are times when it feels like all these efforts are for naught, and change is so painfully slow in coming, and I have to confront my own doubts," he confessed.

A year after his inauguration as the first African-American president of the United States "” a watershed whose value is unlikely to diminish regardless of what lies ahead "” Obama could clearly do with a bit of sympathy.

No US president in more than 50 years has faced lower popularity ratings a year after...