Opinion: Obama says he would resign if he was in Rep. Weiner’s shoes

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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
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