Barack Obama, who entered the White House last January riding a popularity wave, has showed signs of frustration at the turn of events in the recent past.
"It's harder to get out of the bubble," Obama told a cheering crowd in Elyria in Ohio, as he hit the road this year, giving a glimpse of the Obama of election campaign days.
The US President said that he had, for two years, the privilege of traveling across the country and got the chance to talk to people, went to diners and sat in barbershops, and heard directly about the challenges that the people were facing in their lives, and the opportunities that they were taking advantage of, "and all the things that we face together as a nation."
"The single hardest thing -- people ask me this all the time -- about being President is that it's harder for me to do that nowadays. It's harder to get out of the bubble," said Obama, the first African-American President of the United States.
"I mean, don't get me wrong, the White House is a wonderful place to work. You live above the store," Obama said amidst laughter, adding this means he has got a very short commute.
"I see my daughters before they go to school and I see them at night for dinner, even if I have to go back down to the office. And that makes everything so much better," he said.
"But the truth is, this job is a little confining, and that is frustrating. I can't just go to the barbershop or sit in a diner. I can't always visit people directly," he said.
"This is part of the reason why I have taken to the practice of reading 10 letters, out of the 40,000 that I get, every night just so that I can stay in touch and hear from you. But nothing beats a day where I can make an escape, I break out. And so I appreciate the chance to come here and spend a day," Obama told the crowd in Ohio.
