Thaindian News

Washington, Jan. 26 (ANI): Despite the sagging support for his health care reform bill, President Barack Obama has clarified that political dangers to his presidency won’t shake his determination to go ahead with the centrepiece of his domestic agenda, as winning the next presidential election is not his ultimate goal but becoming “a really good one-term president is.”

“I’d rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president. 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. Our job description is to solve problems and to help people,” ABC News quoted Obama, as saying in an exclusive interview.

Just two days before he is scheduled to deliver a State of the Union speech to a joint session of Congress, Obama acknowledged the political setbacks of his first year in office.

“I’d probably say I make a mistake a day, maybe two. I think the healthcare debate as it unfolded legitimately raised concerns not just among my opponents, but also amongst reporters that we just don’t know what’s going on,” he said.

However, he 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.”

His statements come at a time when the president’s health care reform bill is stalled in Congress because the Senate lost its super-majority when Massachusetts elected Republican Scott Brown last week.

When asked about the recent dip in his job approval rating over health care, economy, and unemployment issues, Obama dismissed the whole hoopla surrounding numbers.

“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.” (ANI)