Talk about bad timing.

Just days after American voters sent President Obama a blunt and angry message about their desire to see him do more to fix the economy, Mr. Obama is heading overseas this morning on a 10-day foreign trip to Asia, according The New York Times.

The president will go to India, Indonesia, South Korea and Japan on a mission that will involve issues of global security, international trade and economics, improving cultural ties, preventing terrorism and some personal diplomacy. He will dine with foreign leaders, give a speech about Muslim outreach and attend summits on global finance.

But in the days since the midterm elections this week, Mr. Obama and his senior aides have found a much more simple way to describe the purpose of the trip.

It’s about American jobs, they say.

“The primary purpose is to take a bunch of U.S. companies and open up markets so that we can sell in Asia, in some of the fastest-growing markets in the world, and we can create jobs here in the United States of America,” Mr. Obama told his cabinet Thursday, with the cameras rolling.

“My hope is, is that we’ve got some specific announcements that show the connection between what we’re doing overseas and what happens here at home when it comes to job growth and economic growth,” he said.

Read the entire story at nytimes.com