Obama would trade healthcare for second term

Source: The Hill

President Barack Obama has told lawmakers that he would give up a second term in office if it meant he could pass healthcare.

At Friday's daily briefing at the White House, a reporter for The New York Times said that Rep. Leonard Boswell (D-Iowa) was told by the president that he would that he was willing to be a one-term president if that meant getting health care reform through.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said he was unclear if the president meant that specifically to healthcare, but Gibbs said he has heard the president say that "if making tough decisions in — in getting important things done that Washington has failed to deal with for decades means that he only lives in this house and makes those decisions for four years, he's quite comfortable with that."

(snip)

"The way he approaches this issue, the economy, Afghanistan, Iraq, any of these issues is not in a mode of self-preservation, but in a mode of how best — how best, given all of the information out there, how best can he make decisions that he thinks are in the best interests of the American people, not what's in the best interest of his personal polling numbers," Gibbs said.


Read more: http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/obama-would-trade-healthcare-for-second-term-2009-08-21.html

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Now we're talkin' - Sounds like somebody has decided to put it all on the line - let's hope he means it.

The headline makes it seem as if he's willing to give up on health care in order to secure a second term...

.

If he gets significant health care through, he won't need to limit himself to one term.

President Obama will not let us down. He won't.

I just think the drama of the moment is hard to look past.

Why pussy foot around with PO, CoOps, Playing nice with the Ins Co's. Why not risk a second term on something big - like Universal Healthcare!!

And my bet is he would be re-elected. Just like Medicare, after the initial "fear," everyone loves it.

I don't know how I feel about this line of argument.