President Barack Obama gets a “high five” from a patron as he makes an unscheduled stop at Smitty’s Place, a restaurant, Friday, in Elyria, Ohio. (AP)

ELYRIA, Ohio (Reuters) - President Barack Obama rejected criticism that he has spent too little time trying to generate jobs and defended his focus on healthcare in a speech that showed a feisty tone at the end of a tough week.

‘’I won’t stop fighting for you,’’ he thundered in a speech in the small city of Elyria, in economically sagging northeastern Ohio, that provided a likely preview of the themes in his first State of the Union speech next Wednesday.

Obama vigorously defended bank and car company bailouts and a $787 billion economic stimulus program as needed to save the economy. The moves generated anger and frustration among Americans and contributed to a Republican being elected a senator in traditionally Democratic Massachusetts on Tuesday.

And he strongly defended his focus on healthcare -- a debate that took up most of last year and led to criticism that he had taken his eye off the economy, the country’s No. 1 problem. ‘’Let me dispel this notion that we were somehow focused on that (healthcare) and so as a consequence not focused on the economy. First of all, all I think about is how are we going to create jobs in this area,’’ Obama said.

The president’s switch to a more populist tone followed his own admission in an ABC News interview earlier this week that he had lost a direct connection with everyday Americans. The president, marking one-year in office this week, has suddenly run into difficult headwinds.

The election of Republican Scott Brown as a senator from Massachusetts means Democrats will not longer have a 60-vote supermajority in the chamber and gives Republicans new muscle in their fight against the Democrats’ healthcare overhaul and other items.

The loss will make it harder for Obama to advance his ambitious domestic agenda. As Democrats scramble in Washington on what strategy to take to gain congressional passage of healthcare, Obama vowed to keep fighting for the issue. ‘’I am not going to walk away just because it is hard,’’ he said. And in a particularly emotional moment, Obama said he was not concerned about poll numbers. His job approval rating is hovering around 50 percent, down from about 70 percent when he took office.

‘’This is not about me. It’s you. I didn’t take up this issue to boost my poll numbers. You know the way to boost your poll numbers is not do anything. That’s how you do it. You don’t offend anybody. I’d have real high poll numbers. All of Washington would be saying, what a genius,’’ he said.

Obama, in what sounded like an admission that he had become detached from everyday Americans, said it was a ‘’little confining’’ living in the protective bubble of the White House.n ‘’I can’t just walk around and visit people like I used to. I can’t just go to the barber shop or sit at a diner,’’ he said.

Before his speech, he sought to get some face time with local people by having a hamburger at Smitty’s bar and grill and talking to locals. It was the second stop on Obama’s so-called White House to Main Street tour, announced in December. One aim is to help the president demonstrate that he understands how important it is to fix the economy and generate jobs.