What About Re-Election?

Does President Obama actually want to serve out two terms in office? It's a provocative question, to be sure. Here's a thought-provoking piece from the Telegraph that plays around with an idea that is counterintuitive:

There are few Americans who see themselves as bigger than the presidency but Obama could well be one of them. In 2008, Obama showed little appetite for the down-and-dirty aspects of political campaigning.

When things got tough against Hillary Clinton, he all but conceded the final Democratic primaries and let the clock run out. Against John McCain, he developed a campaign plan and refused to deviate from it. McCain was level in the polls when the US economy imploded, handing Obama a relatively comfortable victory.

Obama is the first black American president, an established author, multi-millionaire and acclaimed figure beyond American shores.

It seems highly unlikely that Obama will decide not to run in 2012. But he might well be calculating that a embarking post-presidential role as the leading global thinker in the post-American world as a Republican successor enters office is more attractive than being sullied by the political compromises and manoeuvrings necessary to win.

Obama is post-American in every respect, and he definitely sees himself as bigger than the presidency, not to mention America itself, so in that regard, the commentary has a point. But to suggest that Obama would prefer be a one-term president is a bit of a stretch if you ask me, since that would necessitate him losing to someone else, which is something his pride is incapable of accepting.