As Jim Geraghty and others have highlighted, the president told Diane Sawyer in a recent interview: “I’d rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president.” Talk about your false choices. Charles Krauthammer noted yesterday that Obama left out at least a third alternative — being a mediocre (at best) one-term president. What’s galling about his statement, though, is not the false dichotomy, it is the conceit that it takes to make it. Obama is essentially saying that “I’ll be such a good president that the American people won’t be smart enough to figure it out until after I’m gone. Yes, I’ll lose an election, but I’ll save the world.” So which is it that’s waiting for you, Mr. President? Rushmore or Olympus?
Share this story

About the Author
Shannen W. Coffin, a contributing editor to National Review, practices appellate law in Washington, D.C.
Advertisement
Advertisement





Comments