White House: Republicans could win control of House

July 13, 2010

Sun Jul 11, 11:44 AM

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans could win control of the House of

Representatives in elections in November, White House spokesman Gibbs

acknowledged on Sunday.

" There is no doubt there are enough seats at play that could cause Republicans

to gain control, there is no doubt about that, " Gibbs told NBC's " Meet the

Press " talk show when asked whether the Democrats would maintain their majority

in the House.

All 435 seats in the House are up for grabs in the November 2 election as well

as 36 of the 100 seats in the Senate.

President Barack Obama will have a tougher time pushing his political agenda

through Congress if Republicans make big gains in November and wipe out

Democratic majorities in both the Senate and the House.

In the run-up to the vote, Obama is trying to convince impatient Americans that

his economic policies are working and that improvements will take time.

" We understand people are frustrated, everybody is frustrated, " Gibbs said.

" Look, the president is frustrated that we haven't seen greater recovery

efforts, but that doesn't stop us from doing what we know is right, instituting

the policies that we know will bring the country back, " he added.

Obama and his fellow Democrats are grappling with a range of problems and many

political analysts see the election as a national referendum on his policies.

The economy is struggling and unemployment has hovered at just below 10 percent.

The war in Afghanistan is not going well. And the oil spill in the Gulf of

Mexico has prompted criticism that Obama's response was slow, disorganized and

too easy on BP Plc.

A Gallup poll released on July 7 showed that 38 percent of independent voters

approve of the job Obama is doing, compared with 81 percent of Democratic voters

and only 12 percent of Republicans. Obama's overall approval rating is 46

percent.

A year ago, Obama's approval rating among independents was 56 percent.

(Reporting by Lesley Wroughton, Editing by Maler)

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