By Pamela Gentry, Senior Political Analyst

June 23, 2009 – President Barack Obama has scheduled his first Rose Garden news conference for Tuesday marking his fourth face-to-face with the Washington press in his nearly six months in office.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told us at Monday’s briefing the president would open with remarks on health care, energy legislation and Iran’s disputed election.   

This news conference will be unlike the first three held in the East Room of the White House.  This would be the first time reporters will be given the opportunity for extended questioning of the president on a wide range of issues.

The president will most likely use this press conference to sure-up his popularity which in recent weeks has started to falter according to recent polls.  His numbers in a survey released Monday by Rasmussen are trending lower, of those surveyed 54 percent of voters say he doing a good job, a slip from over the last three months where he held an approval rating in the mid-60.   

 But that’s just one poll, others give the president a sizable approval rating, the lower numbers e appear to be with some Independents who are questioning the Administration’s deficit spending.

 Peter Hart, conducted a Wall St Journal/NBC survey this month, the pollster said the president quiet popular, “but there are a lot more thorns in [it]”.  Meaning folks are watching him more closely.  Even an  CBS /New York Times poll found that 52 percent vs. 41 percent of  voters surveyed want him to reduce the ballooning trillion-dollar annual federal deficits  rather than spending to stimulate the economy.