Is Barack Obama An Intentional One Term President?

By Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Editor

We've written about this before here. . .In his first year and a half in office, BHO took on a lot of difficult tasks, and succeeded at many of them.  Notably, while in the middle of pushing for financial reforms and trying to prop up a faltering economy, he tackled health care reform.  He has taken on a number of other reforms.  He has already in his first two years, successfully seated two nominees on the Supreme Court.  George W. Bush also placed two nominees--in eight years.  On the other hand, President Bush also failed in one nomination--the disastrous and almost laughable nomination of his White House Counsel Harriet Miers.  Bill Clinton also placed two people on The Supremes.  BHO has also taken on some almost pointless issues, like bringing his old professor and a cop to the White House for a mediation over beers on the lawn.  Or, when he recently spoke out about the proposed Muslim center in downtown Manhattan (about which he was absolutely right, but had nothing to gain) which is unlikely to ever be built, since they only have a few thousand dollars in the bank.  He has nothing to gain, and is unlikely to really even influence people on these sorts of wedge issues.

Almost out of the gate, President Obama seemed to act as if a second term didn't really matter.  The U.K.'s Telegraph had an interesting article this weekend, "Does Barack Obama want to be re-elected in 2012?" While I doubt the veracity and analysis of a British 'paper analyzing the U.S. Presidency, they have a point. 

Almost everything Obama does these days suggests that he doesn't care much about being re-elected. He may want to be re-elected, but it feels like he isn't really sweating it one way or the other.  Strange as it might seem, perhaps he wants to be a one-term president. And, let's face it, in an eight year term as President, you spend at least three of those years either running for re-election or functioning as either a virtual--or real!--lame duck. 

Of course he will run for re-election (unless something really weird happens).  But as popular as he still is, I often feel that he will not be re-elected.  It's a foolish move, but I suspect the electorate will want to roll back and elect a republican to office.  Like many of you, I fervently hope that that Republican will not be Ex-Governor Sarah Palin...
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