Bill Press (the quoted adviser) is an outstanding physicist -- I believe he was the youngest physicist ever tenured at Harvard. I think the quote was out of context. He wasn't saying he doesn't like physics, he was saying it can be hard to sell as a political priority.
That makes a lot of sense. I read that article too quickly and the quote sounded weird when I read it. But it would make perfect sense if he were talking about what he thinks other people think of physics.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_H._Press