Pained by political gridlock, President Barack Obama let slip that he wished Washington was as "ruthlessly efficient" as the Machiavellian world portrayed in Kevin Spacey's Netflix hit "House of Cards."
Obama, who has spent a gruelling three years battling a Republican House of Representatives, ruefully wished life imitated art during a photo op with bosses of top Internet firms, including a top Netflix executive today.
"I'm just wondering if you brought advance copies of House of Cards?" Obama quipped.
"I wish things were that ruthlessly efficient," Obama said, of the Washington ruled by Spacey's fearsome character, House majority whip Frank Underwood.
"This guy's getting a lot of stuff done," Obama joked.
A second series of multiple Emmy nominated "House of Cards," loosely based on a British miniseries of the 1990s, debuts in February on Netflix, the online streaming site.
Underwood, who confides his scheming to viewers in on-screen soliloquys during the show, rules the fictional Washington with an iron hand, viciously exploiting those who stand in his route to power.
Obama by contrast has had to endure years of assessments of his performance in the dark arts of Washington politics, which according to critics lacks finesse and sufficient steel.
