Locals say Obama keeping head above water but still dog paddling

LYNN – Two months after his historic and fanfare-laden inauguration, President Barack Obama is up to his neck in daunting tasks but managing to hold his own.Local voters offered that assessment Friday as they weighed the president’s ability to keep his message of hope alive while struggling to guide the country out of an economic crisis.Mike Mendes thinks Obama should divide up the United States’ problems and tackle one at a time.”He’s trying to dig his hands into too many pots.”Beth Melillo gave the president a passing grade and still sees him as a national inspiration.”His election was the first I cared about,” she said.Obama passed the 60-day mark of his administration with a politically incorrect gaffe that drew laughter from the live television audience that heard it.Toward the end of an interview Thursday, Obama told host Jay Leno he’s been practicing at the White House’s bowling alley but wasn’t happy with his score of 129.Leno complimented Obama on the score, but the president quipped, “It was like the Special Olympics or something,” which prompted laughter from the audience.Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton said the president’s offhand remark was not meant to disparage the Special Olympics, only to poke some fun at the commander-in-chief’s bowling skills.”He thinks that the Special Olympics are a wonderful program that gives an opportunity to shine to people with disabilities from around the world,” Burton told reporters flying back to Washington with Obama aboard Air Force One.A call for comment to a Special Olympics spokesman was not returned late Thursday.Obama appears to be drawing on his charisma he commanded in the 2008 election to rally support for his $3.6 trillion federal budget proposal by asking his supporters to use election-style tactics to help him push his $3.6 trillion budget proposal.Obama turned to his list of names – it numbers almost 14 million – to try to overwhelm Capitol Hill with phone calls and other direct contact with lawmakers, a test of how well his grass-roots network might be used as a tool in running the country. At the same time, he went on the stump in California and on television with the same style and fervor that earned him the presidency.At stake: a federal budget carrying the bulk of Obama’s campaign promises and, politically, the enthusiasm that energizes his online community.In an online message, Obama adviser David Plouffe told supporters, “Right now, we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to finally confront the systemic problems that have held America back for far too long in energy, health care and education.”Beyond that opportunity to change public policy, it’s also a potent political challenge for a new administration already looking at a re-election campaign. Millions of first-time voters and volunteers joined the campaign through the Internet and keeping them engaged will be crucial in 2012.”There was a lot of excitement during the campaign and we were talking about the importance of bringing about change,” Obama said Thursday at a town-hall event in Los Angeles. “We are moving systematically to bring about change, but change is hard. Change doesn’t happen overnight.”The president urged patience even as Organizing for America, as the re-election-campaign-in-waiting is called, published an Internet-based tool to help voters find their representatives in Congress. He urged supporters to make phone calls to Capitol Hill, regardless of political party.The president also directed volunteers to return to the streets this weekend, as they did during the campaign.”I’m asking you to head outside this Saturday to knock on some doors, talk to some neighbors, and let them know how important this budget is to our future,” Obama said in a video message to supporters.Organizers say more than 1,000 door-to-door canvassing activities are planned across the country to talk about the president’s budget.If they are successful, Obama will be handed a decisive win as he puts into law his