Obama would trade healthcare for second term

President Barack Obama has told lawmakers that he would give up a second term in office if it meant he could pass healthcare.

At Friday's daily briefing at the White House, a reporter for The New York Times said that Rep. Leonard Boswell (D-Iowa) was told by Obama that he was willing to be a one-term president if that meant getting healthcare reform through.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said he was unclear if the president meant that specifically to healthcare, but Gibbs said he has heard the president say that "if making tough decisions in — in getting important things done that Washington has failed to deal with for decades means that he only lives in this house and makes those decisions for four years, he's quite comfortable with that."

That news comes as polls show the president's embattled healthcare plan is starting to take its toll on the administration's popularity.

Gibbs said Obama does not make decisions based on politics or the prospects of being reelected.

"The way he approaches this issue, the economy, Afghanistan, Iraq, any of these issues is not in a mode of self-preservation, but in a mode of how best — how best, given all of the information out there, how best can he make decisions that he thinks are in the best interests of the American people, not what's in the best interest of his personal polling numbers," Gibbs said.

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