2010-10-26 11:21

US President Barack Obama speaks at a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) rally in Providence, Rhode Island Oct 25, 2010. [Photo/Agencies]

WOONSOCKET - US President Barack Obama on Monday touted his administration's job-creation efforts just eight days before elections in which voters' economic anxiety threatens his Democrats' grip on Congress.

Making a campaign stop in the tiny state of Rhode Island, Obama acknowledged some of his policies were not popular and that Americans were frustrated by the weak economic recovery. But the steps he took averted a second Great Depression, he stressed.

"It took us a long time to get us into this economic hole that we've been in. But we are going to get out and I am absolutely convinced there are brighter days ahead for America," Obama told workers after touring the American Cord & Webbing plant in Woonsocket, outside Providence.

It was the start of the last full week of campaigning before the November 2 elections, with polls showing Obama's Democrats at risk of losing control of the House of Representatives and headed for a slimmed-down majority in the Senate.

US voters will elect 435 members to the House of Representatives and fill 37 of the 100 seats in the Senate.

Projected Republican gains could put the brakes on Obama's legislative agenda.

Obama used his Rhode Island visit to highlight a $30 billion small-business lending program to help generate jobs, a package he pushed through Congress in September. Republican opponents have called it wasteful spending.