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Obama started the Asia tour immediately after suffering a political battering in elections at home, as Republicans recaptured the House and significantly cut the Democratic majority in the Senate. The president adopted a defensive tone before leaving Seoul on Friday, taking exception to questioning about whether his personal leadership, U.S. influence on the world stage or both had suffered as a result of the election outcome. He'd also gotten flak from within the G-20 about the Federal Reserve's decision to buy $600 billion worth of Treasury bonds. Some critics compared the move to the type of currency manipulation Washington has accused China of pursuing. "No," was Obama's answer at a news conference when asked if the elections had diminished his clout abroad. "People are eager to work with America, eager to engage with America." Obama said the meetings had led to improved relations with presidents and prime ministers in ways not apparent from the superficial photo ops that are common at such gatherings. "It's not just a function of personal charm," he said. "It's a function of countries' interests and seeing if we can work through to align them." The mission of creating jobs in the U.S. is at the heart of Obama's trip. Job growth has been modest at best after a crippling recession in which the economy shed millions of jobs, and the unemployment rate has been at 9.5 percent or higher for the last 15 months. Obama refused to say whether joblessness would still be in that range when he seeks re-election in 2012, but he pushed back when asked if people would see noticeable job growth during his four-year term. "We've grown the economy by a million jobs over the last year," Obama said. "So that's pretty noticeable. I think those million people who've been hired notice those paychecks."
[Associated
Press;
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