President Obama and Spike Lee agree: in his second term, he’ll do whatever he wants.
The president made clear that he does not intend to compromise or moderate his positions in a second term, as he believes that Republicans must recognize that he will have a mandate from the American people if he wins.
I think that after this election, we’ll be in a position to once again reach out to Republicans and say that the American people have rendered a judgment, and the positions we’re taking are well within what used to be considered bipartisan centrist approaches,” Obama told Parade Magazine in a new interview.
Obama also said that “Republican voters, if you ask them about my particular policy positions, often agree with me. So there’s a difference between Republicans in Washington and Republican and Republican-leaning voters around the country.”
To bolster his centrist credentials, Obama cited Obamacare, hated as it is by “Republican and Republican-leaning voters” around the country.
“My approach has been pretty consistent from the start; I’ve often proposed ways to solve our problems that used to be embraced by Republicans,” he said. “There’s no better example than the health care bill, which was designed originally by the now Republican standard-bearer and is working pretty well in Massachusetts.”
His analogy might not actually hold up as well as he thinks, as the fact that Republican party leadership in the early 1990s entertained an idea that they now reject (because American people generally don’t like the idea) does not mean that Republican and Republican-leaning voters will actually support similar Obama positions.
