Obama: Political system needs reform

President Obama says a number of changes can be made to improve the political system and reduce polarization, starting with the drawing of U.S. House districts.

Political gerrymandering -- drawing districts with heavy numbers of people who lean toward one party or another -- has created a system in which 80% of the districts are automatically either Democratic or Republican, Obama says.

"That leads to more and more polarization in Congress, and it gets harder and harder to get things done," Obama told NPR News in an interview broadcast this week.

Noting that California has moved to a non-partisan redistricting process, Obama said more mixed political districts would encourage candidates to appeal to "the basic common sense and goodness and decency of the American people," rather than just "a narrow sliver of your base."

In his NPR interview, the president also protested Senate filibuster rules that essentially demand 60 of 100 voter to move any piece of legislation.

As for presidential politics, Obama criticized "the influence of super PACs and the ability of a handful of billionaires to dictate who can compete or not compete, for example, in a Republican primary."

That said, Obama still professed faith in the American political system and its future.

"We go through these phases where things seem just dysfunctional and bottled up and folks get frustrated," Obama told NPR News.