AP via Rolling Stone

The Rolling Stone cover with President Obama. The issue hits newsstands Friday, April 27.

President Barack Obama knows the stakes of this year's election are high.

After all, he told Rolling Stone magazine, his legacy thus far has been met with mixed reviews.

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling in June on whether the individual insurance mandate that is a key component of the Obama administration’s health care law is unconstitutional.

Though the economy has stabilized, a recent NBC/WSJ poll found that voters feel presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney leads Obama 40% to 34% when it comes to considering which candidate has savvier ideas on shoring up the economy.

Still, Obama feels confident that this fall voters will reject what he sees as Republicans' "shift to an agenda that is far out of the mainstream — and, in fact, is contrary to a lot of Republican precepts."

He also underscored that though there have been tense exchanges between his administration and GOP congressional leadership, the president does not see the relationship as “frosty.”

“When John Boehner and I sit down, I enjoy a conversation with him. I don’t think he’s a bad person,” Obama said. “I think he’s patriotic. I think that the Republicans up on the Hill care about this country, but they have a very ideologically rigid view of how to move this country forward, and a lot of how they approach issues is defined by ‘Will this help us defeat the president?’ as opposed to ‘Will this move the country forward?'"

In the interview, which writer and Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner described as "somber," Obama said that in many ways, the election is a referendum on his first-term performance.

"Now, the burden on me is going to be to describe for the American people how the progress we’ve made over the past three years, if sustained will actually lead to the kind of economic security that they’re looking for,” Obama said. “There’s understandable skepticism because things are still tough out there.”

Obama acknowledged that the unemployment rate, which is at 8.2 percent, is “way too high.”

"You have folks whose homes are underwater because the housing bubble burst, people are still feeling the pinch from high gas prices,” Obama said. “The fact of the matter is that times are still tough for too many people, and the recovery is still not as robust as we’d like, and that’s what will make it a close election.”

The past four years have also given the president an opportunity to examine issues of race and describes his own views on the topic as “complicated.”

"Race has been one of the fault lines in American culture and American politics from the start," he said. "I never bought into the notion that by electing me, somehow we were entering into a post-racial period.

"On the other hand, I’ve seen in my own lifetime how racial attitudes have changed and improved, and anybody who suggests they haven’t isn’t paying attention or is trying to make a rhetorical point.

"We all see it every day, and me being in this Oval Office is a testimony to changes that have been taking place.”

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TODAY.com contributor Halimah Abdullah is the site’s woman in Washington.

Would he or wouldn't he?

Conservative rising star Rep. Paul Ryan stopped just shy of saying he’d join Mitt Romney's ticket as VP, but the Wisconsin congressman offered full-throated support of the Republican frontrunner.

Ryan, who endorsed Romney, said he hasn't spoken with the candidate about the potential post. "I haven't given it much thought."

Yet, on Tuesday it appeared as he was all but auditioning for the position. 

“I’ve actually really grown to like him quite a bit,” Ryan told TODAY’s Ann Curry. “I believe he has the exact kind of leadership skills we need to get this country out of the debt crisis we’re in.”

Ryan’s backing could help Romney, who has struggled to gain support among some conservatives.

Ryan attributed Romney’s problems with conservatives to his role as former governor of Massachusetts — a blue state — and the compromises he had to make in working with Democrats in the state legislature. Paul defended Romney’s conservative bona fides.

“He’s going to be a great standard bearer for us in the fall,” Paul said.

Ryan, who chairs the House budget committee, also defended his budget Tuesday against criticism that the proposal balances the nation’s debt on the backs of the poor.

An analysis by the non-partisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that “62 percent of its $5.3 trillion in nondefense budget cuts over ten years …from programs that serve people of limited means.”

“Do you acknowledge poor people will suffer under this budget?” Curry asked Ryan.

“No,” Ryan responded, adding later, “We don’t agree that throwing more money at failed programs works.”

Ryan’s measure, which passed the GOP-controlled House earlier this year, proposes to trim more than $6 trillion in spending over the next decade by cutting and reforming entitlements such as welfare and food stamps. The measure also nixes corporate tax loopholes and cuts the corporate tax rate.

The measure is unlikely to pass the Democrat-controlled Senate.

President Barack Obama recently blasted the proposal as a “Trojan horse” and “thinly veiled social Darwinism.”

Ryan called Obama’s comments “more petulant than presidential.”

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TODAY.com political contributor Halimah Abdullah is the site’s woman in Washington.

A new poll has found the president, here with Mrs. Obama in Washington in February, is popular among women voters.

President Barack Obama has the ladies on lock, according to a recent Associated Press-GfK poll.

The poll, conducted Feb. 16-20, found that female voters are more likely than men to credit the president for the economy’s slow but steady turnaround. Obama’s approval rating among women jumped to 53 percent, up ten percent from just a few months ago, the poll found.

High-profile political back-and-forth over such social issues as requiring insurance companies to cover contraception for employees of religious institutions may also be helping steer female voters Obama’s way, the poll found.

“Social issues tend to be very important to the bases — both conservative and liberal voters,” said Nathan Gonzales, deputy editor of The Rothenberg Political Report, a non-partisan publication based in Washington D.C. “It can be a rallying point and boost for voters on the far right and far left. Social issues also help generate money for campaigns.”

Women make up just over half of the electorate and this critical voting block helped Obama clinch a win over GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain in the 2008 elections.

Obama also “comes the closest to gender parity in terms of campaign cash,” according to an analysis of individual donations of $200 or more by the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks the influence of money in politics.

The study found that 44 percent of the president’s campaign cash came from female donors, while 56 percent came from men.

Obama might be gaining ground with female voters, but Republican presidential hopefuls Rep. Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich get male donors to open their wallets, the Center for Responsive Politics’ study found.

Paul racked in 83 percent of his campaign cash from men. Gingrich also fared well with guys, pulling in about 77 percent of donations from male donors, according to the report.

Republican frontrunners Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum didn’t fare too shabbily either with the guys. According to the report, Santorum pulled in a respectable 68 percent of such donations from men and Romney did even better, at 70 percent.

As for the GOPers’ ability to get the ladies to open their pocketbooks? Well, that’s a different matter.

Gingrich, Romney and Santorum get nearly a third of their cash from female donors, according to the report.

And apparent guy’s guy Ron Paul?

He pulls in a paltry 17 percent from the ladies.

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Today.com political contributor Halimah Abdullah is the site’s woman in Washington.