Prez ends tough year

WASHINGTON — At his yearend press conference, a Hawaiibound President Obama looked happy Friday to be flying away from his toughest year in the WhiteHouse.

“Iknow you are all eager to skip town and spend some time with your families,” Obama told a crammed White House briefing room. “Not surprisingly, I am too.”

The year saw the disastrous launch of his signature health care program, the disclosure of the government’s massive global surveillance programs, an extended government shutdown and the failure to deliver on gun control and immigration reform.

Friday, a CNN/ORC International poll placed Obama’s approval rating at 41%, a 14-point drop over the year.

“I took this job to deliver for the American people, and I knew and will continue to know that there are going to be ups and downs on it,” he said.

Asked if the year was his worst, Obama smiled easily and said, “That’s not how I think about it.”

Pressed to cite his greatest mistake of the past year, Obama acknowledged the Healthcare.gov debacle.

“And since I’m in charge, obviously, we screwed it up,” he said, but asked more time to reflect on the past year’s missteps.

“I am sure that I will have even better ideas after a couple days of sleep and sun,” he said.

Still, he predicted better days ahead.

He predicted 2014 would be “a breakthrough year forAmerica.”