OBAMA? Is it time yet?
Video: A Test for Obama’s View of a One-Term Presidency |
| Farewell
WASHINGTON
— It was a year and a half ago when President
Obama told Diane Sawyer of ABC News in an interview that he would
rather be a good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president.
|
FLASHBACK: Obama: My Presidency Will Be 'A One-Term Proposition'
If Economy Doesn't Turn In 3 Years
http://youtu.be/CCN5-ovvFL0
Now,
coming off one of his worst weeks since taking office, Mr. Obama is nearing a
decision on whether he really meant that. Is he willing to try to administer
the disagreeable medicine that could help the economy mend over the long term,
even if that means damaging his chances for re-election?
The
Federal Reserve’s finding on Tuesday that there is little prospect for rapid
economic growth over the next two years was the latest in a summer of bad
economic news. One administration official called the atmosphere around the
president’s economic team “angry and morose.”
There was
no word on the mood of the president’s political team, but it was unlikely to
be buoyed by the Fed’s assertion that the economy would still be faltering well
past Mr. Obama’s second inauguration, should he win another term.
“The
problem for Obama is that right now, the United States is either at a precipice
or has fallen off it,” said David Rothkopf, a Commerce Department official in
the Clinton administration. “If he is true to his commitment to rather be a
good one-term president, then this is the character test. In some respects,
this is the 3 a.m. phone call.” Read More:New York Times
