On the second day of his bus tour through North Carolina, President Obama acknowledged in an exclusive interview with ABC News that the challenges facing his re-election stem in part from the disillusionment of his supporters with his leadership on the economy.

“I guarantee it’s going to be a close election because the economy is not where it wants to be and even though I believe all the choices we’ve made have been the right ones, we’re still going through difficult circumstances,” Obama told ABC News senior White House correspondent Jake Tapper in the interview to air this evening on “Nightline” from Jamestown, N.C.

“That means people who may be sympathetic to my point of view still kind of feel like, yeah, but it still hasn’t gotten done yet,” Obama said.

The full Tapper interview with Obama will air tonight on “Nightline” at 11:35 ET. 

The president faces sagging popular support in key swing states such as North Carolina and Virginia, which he won narrowly in 2008 and where lingering economic malaise is complicating his bid to keep the states blue.

Obama narrowly carried North Carolina four years ago, but now 51 percent of voters disapprove of the president and 44 percent say he has made the economy worse, according to an Elon University poll. In Virginia, 52 percent of voters in a Quinnipiac University poll disapprove of Obama while 51 say he deserves no second term.

“This is going to be a close election and a very important one for the American people,” Obama said. “The thing I hope the most is that everyone is going to be paying close attention to the debate that takes place because it could determine not just what happens over the next four years, but what’ll happen over the next 20 or 30 years.”