Mark Kirk Predicts Obama To Be A One-Term President

Mark Kirk Predicts One Term For Obama


Appearing before a Republican audience in the Chicago suburbs Friday, Rep. Mark Kirk, the GOP nominee for Senate, sought to rally the partisan crowd with language about President Obama that may not sit well with some Illinois voters.

“We are on the way to making this guy a one-termer," Kirk said of Obama at a Republican dinner in Winnetka, according to audio obtained by POLITICO. The congressman was speaking in the context of how, with a Republican president, the GOP may be able to repeal healthcare legislation before much it goes into effect.

Aside from calling the president "this guy," Kirk's prediction of an Obama re-election defeat in 2012 puts him out of step with how most residents of the state feel about their own president.

According to a Research 2000 poll late last month, 60 percent of Illinois voters view Obama favorably while just 36 percent view him unfavorably.

Kirk, recognizing Obama's popularity, has largely avoided tough attacks on his former colleague from the state delegation. But now Democrats are seizing on the Republican's language at the New Trier GOP's Corned Beef and Cabbage Dinner to make the case that he's not the independent he portrays himself as but rather a conventional partisan.

"President Obama and U.S. Senate nominee Alexi Giannoulias are fighting hard to move this country forward, and Mark Kirk is just another typical Washington Republican who would rather stand with the corporate special interests and obstruct progress than work with the President to get things done," said Giannoulias spokeswoman Kathleen Strand.

Democrats also hope Kirk's comments will help to underline what's at stake in the race for the president's former seat and rouse party activists and insiders, some of whom have been concerned about Giannoulias's campaign.

Kirk, a moderate on some issues, has been trying to rally his own base, some members of which are wary of him because of his stance on cultural issues and vote for cap-and-trade last year.

Kirk's campaign declined to comment on the congressman's remarks.


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