Valerie Jarrett: Of course Obama's a centrist

Weymouth: During the last year President Obama’s popularity has sunk.
Jarrett: Let’s face it, we inherited a mess. If you think about it, a year ago, [America] was losing 700,000 jobs a month. We were in the midst of a financial-institution meltdown. The global economy was literally on the brink of disaster. And now we’re no longer losing 700,000 jobs a month. We’ve stabilized the financial institutions. [But] the economy isn’t where we want it to be, because we still have a 9.7 percent unemployment rate. In that kind of economic climate, taking on the bold initiatives that the president took on, it’s no wonder that people are feeling very anxious and angry and uncertain…

President Clinton’s first year in office was not a huge success, but he changed course and moved to the center. Are you saying this president will not change course?
What I’m saying is that I guess I disagree with describing him as being off-center. I think part of why he was so popular and won the election is because he did hit a mid[dle] course. If you look at the policies that he has promoted, they are right in that fairway. Kind of implicit in your question was that the president should change to reflect the realities of Washington. Part of what we are still intent on doing is changing Washington. And that doesn’t necessarily happen in one year.