January 25, 2010 5:57 PM
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Obama: I'd Rather Be Good for One Term Than OK for Two
6138626In an interview with ABC News that will air this evening, President Obama says he would "rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president."
"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," the president tells Diane Sawyer, according to ABCNews.com.
Echoing comments Friday, the president said he is determined to pass health care reform legislation despite the election of Republican Scott Brown in the Massachusetts special Senate election last week, which broke the Democrats' effective Senate supermajority.
Ahead of his State of the Union address Wednesday, the president suggested he is willing to see his approval rating suffer if it means passing the legislation.
"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," he said. "Our job description is to solve problems and to help people."
"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," the president tells Diane Sawyer, according to ABCNews.com.
Echoing comments Friday, the president said he is determined to pass health care reform legislation despite the election of Republican Scott Brown in the Massachusetts special Senate election last week, which broke the Democrats' effective Senate supermajority.
Ahead of his State of the Union address Wednesday, the president suggested he is willing to see his approval rating suffer if it means passing the legislation.
"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," he said. "Our job description is to solve problems and to help people."
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Brian Montopoli Brian Montopoli is the senior political reporter at CBSNews.com.
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