Obama seeks to highlight nation’s economic potential

SCHENECTADY, N.Y. (AP) — President Barack Obama is touting America’s business potential in an upstate New York speech, while a new poll shows more than half of Americans disapprove of how he’s handled the economy during his first two years in office.

Speaking at a General Electric plant, Obama says that as the economy slowly recovers, the challenge is to make it easier for people to expand new businesses and for existing companies to hire new workers. Obama also says that in order for the economy to fully recover, U.S. companies must expand their exports to overseas markets.

A new Associated Press-GfK poll shows just 35 percent of Americans say the economy has approved on Obama’s warch.

Obama also used the occasion to introduce GE chief executive Jeffrey Immelt as the head of a Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. The panel replaces Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board.