Obama says he would resign if he was in Rep. Weiner's shoes

President Obama told Ann Curry on Monday that if he was the one whose private text messages, emails, and lewd photos to women surfaced, as they have in Rep. Anthony Weiner's case, he would step down from office. 

“I can tell you that if it was me, I would resign," Obama told NBC's Curry in an interview scheduled to air on the "Today" show Tuesday.

"When you get to the point where, because of various personal distractions, you can't serve as effectively as you need to, at the time when people are worrying about jobs, and their mortgages, and paying the bills — then you should probably step back," Obama told Curry in North Carolina where the president was visiting an LED lighting company.

En route to the factory, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney tiptoed around the answer when he was asked by reporters if the president thought the fiery New York congressman should take the advice of Nancy Pelosi and Eric Cantor and quit.

"The president feels -- we feel at the White House--that this is a distraction," Carney replied. "Obviously as Congressman Weiner has said himself, this is -- the behavior was inappropriate; the dishonesty was inappropriate.  But the president is focused on his job, which is getting this economy continuing to grow, creating jobs and obviously ensuring the safety and security of the American people."

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-- Tony Pierce
twitter.com/busblog

Photo: President Barack Obama is interviewed by Ann Curry at Cree Inc., in Durham, N.C., June 13, 2011 Credit: Pete Souza / The White House

Comments

[peter pockets]

Mr. Weiner’s picture shows Mr. Weiner in his Congressional-office at work. Any private-sector employee committing such immorality at work would have been fired without a thought.

The private-sector investigated and found Mr. Weiner lying; not our government. Our government is slow to impeach Mr. Weiner. Thus, our government-employees-union appears to say, such immoral conduct in the office, at work is okay for all government-employees, and government should cover-up such conduct of government-employees rather than investigate. A double-standard.

[henry]

obama has now had YEARS in which to deal with foreclosures and the banks. he serves the latter quite well. perhaps he should resign.

[Chalupa]

Obama would not resign. He and Weiner demonstrate a remarkable lack of insight. Both have poor self-image and use others to bolster their egos. They compensate by aggressive. controlling behavior. You can't make people like you. You can make them dislike you.

[Employment Experts]

Inappropriate-yes when what was meant for private use was made available for public viewing. Distraction-again yes because everyone who is talking about this in the government could be talking about more important matters as well as the news coverage could be dedicated to something more important to all Americans, like the economy and jobs. Did he send these pictures and talk sex during business hours? Who knows? It was bad behavior in my opinion but he wasn't sending these emails to the world.

[Keith]

This is interesting, because I would resign if I were Obama.