Obama: Half of my letters brand me an idiot

Washington: US President Barack Obama has joked that half of the 40,000 letters that pour into the White House each day brand him an "idiot." Tongue-in-cheek, the president remarked that his staff did not spare him the wrath of his correspondents -- selecting a representative portion of 10 letters for him to read when he returns to the White House residence at night.

"I will tell you, that my staff is very even-handed, because about half of these letters call me an idiot!" Obama said yesterday, chuckling at his own joke during a rally in Saint Louis, Missouri. The president went on to make a serious point, saying that many senior citizens wrote to him to tell him to keep the government`s hands off Medicare, a health plan for elderly people. He said he wrote back to these people to point out that Medicare is in fact a federally administered programme. Obama frequently mentions the flood of letters that make it to the White House every day, and has said those selected for him to read help him to puncture the presidential "bubble" and connect with regular Americans. PTI