A new USA Today/Gallup poll puts President Obama's approval rating at 55 percent, which ranks him 10th among 12 post-World War II presidents at the same point in the survey. His approval is down from 61 percent in late May.

As he seeks to regain momentum on the health care front, the survey finds that only 44 percent approve of his handling of the issue, with 50 percent disapproving. Also, 59 percent say his proposal would lead to too much government spending, and 52 percent say it would "call for too much expansion of government power."

During his briefing, Robert Gibbs referred the 59 percent approval rating in the Washington Post/ABC poll as a "pretty darn good number for six months in."

The poll of 1,006 adults was conducted July 17-19 and had a margin of error of +/- 3 percent.