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The Philsophical Obama: Shrugs Off Single Term Possibility
It sounds as if President Barack Obama is at peace with himself no matter what polls and the (see sawing) conventional wisdom say about him. Here are some excerpts from his upcoming interview with ABC News Tonight’s host Diane Sawyer (who is giving the show a ratings boost since she took over):
“I’d rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president,” he told ABC’s “World News” anchor Diane Sawyer in an exclusive interview today
AND:
“You know, there is a tendency in Washington to believe our job description, of elected officials, is to get reelected. That’s not our job description,” Obama said. “Our job description is to solve problems and to help people.”
The president said he was not deterred by the problems with the health care bill.
Seated across from Sawyer in the White House, the president added, “I don’t want to look back on my time here and say to myself all I was interested in was nurturing my own popularity.”
AND:
“I went through this [in] the campaign. When your poll numbers drop, you are an idiot. When your poll numbers are high, you are a genius. If my poll numbers are low, then I am cool and cerebral, and cool and detached. If my poll numbers are high,” Obama said with a laugh, “boy he’s calm and reasoned all right.”
Hey, it does sound like he has figured out how political media narratives and conventional wisdom work (only when a narrative and conventional wisdom is outdated it gets quickly swept under the rug as the new punditry “certainty” takes hold.).
29 Responses to “The Philsophical Obama: Shrugs Off Single Term Possibility”
The President is suspending discretionary spending for three years.
No NASA
No Education
No foreign aid
Nothing but defense and Social Security and veterans.
Hoover rules…
Get ready for the great depression…
Hoover rules…
Get ready for the great depression…
OUCH!!!
Father Time is onto something. So is Obama. Interesting move of his.
It doesn't include entitlement reform — his vow to reform these wasn't taken seriously but once given, is a club he can be hit with incessently — and it's counter to any stimulative motive, so will he also not do a stimulus (real or fake, again) this year? Or does the freeze release money for stimulus, not counting what efforts will be made to raise taxes? And is this a political slave prior to new or higher taxes? (“Now that we demonstrate responsibility with spending control, it is time to raise taxes…”)
“To attack the $1.4 trillion deficit, the White House will propose a three-year freeze on discretionary spending unrelated to the military, veterans, homeland security and international affairs, according to senior administration officials. Also untouched are big entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare.”
“The freeze would affect $447 billion in spending, or 17% of the total federal budget, and would likely be overtaken by growth in the untouched areas of discretionary spending.”
“Mr. Obama will also propose the creation of a deficit commission to look for potential solutions for the medium- and long-term deficit—a move to garner bipartisan support for what may be unpopular tax increases and spending cuts.”
“[T]he budget will include an additional $1.6 billion for low-income child-care subsidies, and that they would ask Congress to sweeten a child-care tax credit with more generous help for families earning up to $115,000.
Administration officials wouldn't say how much the extra tax breaks would cost, or how they would pay for them. The plan also includes new limits for people repaying student loans, capping repayments at 10% of discretionary income, at a cost of $7.5 billion over 10 years, and $102.5 million for help with elder care.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100014240527487…
Of course the obvious, intelligent, and moral thing to do is raise taxes. The republicans don't have the courage or the smarts to do it, so the dems will eventually have to shoulder that politically unpopular, but ultimately responsible burden. Needless to say, that will make the libertarians and their kin squeal, but they'll probably also appreciate the attention.
Jeez. Please someone get this guy a spine transplant. This is getting to be embarrassing. If I could face getting on an overseas flight (with depends), I would tell everyone I am a Canadian.
I don't need a pres., D or R, or I, that doesn't want to do two terms. They should lock him in a room with Brett Favre so he can learn how important it is to do your job with dedication and guts.
Isn't a “really good one-term President” an oxymoron?
Poor Brett, reckon he's a mite sore today.
In any case, I imagine he and Barack would get along just fine.
Why should Republicans have to raise taxes. If they Democrats want all these added programs that are so needed and morally right, than they should be the ones to find ways to pay for it. Instead they are spineless and gutless.
I'm all for a little discretionary spending control, but for those of you without Alzheimer's, who was it that proposed a “spending freeze” during the campaign and who said it was a lousy idea?
I guess he was against it before he was for it.
Think national debt. It belongs to all of us. Might be nice for future generations if we faced it like grownups eh? Your “spineless and gutless” line applies to D's and R's, but the R's also have the added challenge of having to extract their heads from the sand and face reality.
Well duck, if I had a chance at the presidency, I would shoot for one term. The only way anything is going to get done in Washington is if those in power would shun the lobbyists, media and populist rhetoric and clean up the place.
If anything productive happens in Washington, the screams will be loud … and well funded.
Maybe he wants to be good enough to not get re-elected, but not so good that he ends up like JFK.
Couldn't agree more. Except I don't know who Brett Favre is.
Oh, wow. I should have thought of that line.
Wake up, c.o. That's the point of all the criticism he's getting for this. He's turning into a Republican.
Shannon, that's a rather odd thing to say.
Kathy, you will never be able to run for public office anywhere.
If your comment stopped there (before the “but”) I think it would have been a great one.
Okay, I'll make a confession. I have heard the name before. But I have no idea who he is.
Longggggg-time quarterback for the Packers, now for the Vikings, an American institution of sorts, and one darned tough guy – especially for an old guy.
A great football player but a pretty nonsensical choice for a comparison to Obama. Might as well comment on Favre's ability to give an effective SOTU speech. 
Okay, I'll make a confession. I have heard the name before. But I have no idea who he is.”
He is a 40-year old Minn. Viking football quarterback. He epitomizes dogged determination to get the job done and does it with extreme enthusiasm. He had the bejesus knocked out of him in a loss to the Saints on Sunday. He keeps coming back, and you know he is not just playing a part or going through the motions, as most of us do. To use another male type analogy, he's the guy you would want to go on patrol with in a war zone or to be operating on you.
would shoot for one term.”
I agree with you. To get things done you have to put everything on the line. But you also need to have the Favre attitude to keep going and score goals. And do it as long as you can until they throw you out even if it's 8-years.,
You want Brett Favre to operate on you???
Wow. He sounds like an inspiring human being. Thanks for filling me in, dduck.
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We're all quarterbacks now.
We're all quarterbacks now.
'
Me, quarterquack.