Obama: Half the Letters I Get Call Me an 'Idiot'

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!'' Mr Obama said overnight, 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 program. Watch the video here.