Mayor Defends Obama

Mayor Nutter staunchly defended President Obama's performance in office, saying - during a Sunday appearance on Meet the Press - that the "president has done a great job."

Nutter credited Obama with creating laws to reform health care and the financial system, and with passing the $787 billion economic stimulus.

"There is a harsh reality to this economy that people are upset," Nutter said on the NBC program. "They are angry; they are frustrated.

"It's tough to break through all that."

Nutter, who appeared on a panel with the Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan, Republican strategist Ed Gillespie, and the Washington Post's E.J. Dionne, bristled when Gillespie said Obama had failed to work closely with Congress.

Nutter countered that no Republicans in the U.S. House had voted for the economic stimulus and only three voted for it on the Senate side.

"President Obama almost re-invented bipartisanship," Nutter said. GOP "Sen. Mitch McConnell has said his Number 1 goal, his main mission in life now, is to take President Obama out of office."

Obama still has higher approval ratings than Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton did at this point in their White House tenures, Nutter said.

"He has two years," the mayor said, "and a lot can happen in two years."

Nutter said Philadelphia already was seeing some signs of recovery.

He did not mention any, but recently, The Mark Group, a British provider of energy-efficiency services, and Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, have announced expansions in the city.

Nutter also defended new, heightened security measures by the Transportation Security Administration that have angered some travelers.

"Apparently, everyone got to see grandma," Nutter said, adding that terrorists threats justify the new procedures.

"This threat is not over," Nutter said. "We need to pay attention to it."

When Meet the Press host and Los Angeles native David Gregory gloated about Philadelphia first-base coach Davey Lopes' decision to work for the Dodgers, Nutter was tight-lipped.

"Charlie Manuel and I have an agreement," Nutter said. "I don't tell him how to run the team. He doesn't tell me how to run the city."

The mayor also hailed Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick's post-prison career.

"Michael Vick is a great player, but he's also doing some off-field things to demonstrate that he's also a great person," Nutter said.

"Philadelphia is a city of redemption, a city of second changes."