Anonymous wrote:didn't obama say he would be a one term president if he didn't get us back? I think everyone invokes the one term line to make it sound like they will do whatever it takes. Just like a car salesman politicians will say or do anything (both libs and reps) to get elected.

I think he said he would do whatever was necessary, even if it prevented his election. If he had said he would be a one term president for not getting the economy back, we would be watching attack ads running that every single day.

didn't obama say he would be a one term president if he didn't get us back? I think everyone invokes the one term line to make it sound like they will do whatever it takes. Just like a car salesman politicians will say or do anything (both libs and reps) to get elected.

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, Jeff, I just interpret this as Romney wanting to tell everyone what they want to hear. I don't think he is actually serious about a one-term presidency.

Why are you sorry? I also interpret this as Romney wanting to tell everyone what they want to hear. He thinks they want to hear that he would be a one term president. The question is why he thinks they want to hear that. I made one suggestion. What is yours? Obviously "serious" and Romney don't belong in the same sentence

Okay, I thought you believed he was serious about this. I see your point. But it sounds like you do think he was deliberately positioning himself to look like he would only go for one-term. However, it's not clear to me, based on the transcript you quoted, that he was trying to position himself that way. It sounded more to me as if he were improvising when asked a question he didn't expect. As if he didn't want to say - "no, I'm only going with popular positions so I can get re-elected" but he also didn't want it to sound like his policies had the potential to be so unpopular and painful that he would only have one term. It seemed quite vague.

But let's see what he follows up with - maybe this will be a new theme in his campaign.