MARA LIASSON, QUESTION: Thank you. You said earlier that Republicans consider this a home run. You called it a tea party victory.



JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Those are quotes from the fine work of the fourth estate.



LIASSON: Yes, I know. I'm assuming you were quoting Republicans, right. But the recent polls have shown that the President's job approval, especially on the economy, has taken a hit as the gridlock and the sequester has gone forward. It seems like he owns the economy no matter -- and dysfunction in Washington no matter what you've tried to do. I'm wondering whether you think your efforts to explain to the country that it's the Republicans fault have fallen short.



CARNEY: I would say a couple of things. First of all, as I say repeatedly and as we experience together, communally, be careful of making too much of any individual poll --



LIASSON: Well, there’s a series of them.



CARNEY: -- or even a series of polls. I would also say, if we refer to the latest, the Washington Post or ABC News poll, that the President at 50-percent job approval is about where he was when he won reelection overwhelmingly with 332 electoral votes. I'm just a layman in making that observation, but I think it's true.