Obama: GOP Will Moderate After We Break ‘Fever’ In 2012

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President Obama told supporters at a fundraiser in Minneapolis that he expected Republicans to return to the negotiating table on issues like clean energy if Democrats can hold the White House in 2012. 

“I believe that If we’re successful in this election, when we’re successful in this election, that the fever may break, because there’s a tradition in the Republican Party of more common sense than that,” Obama said. “My hope, my expectation, is that after the election, now that it turns out that the goal of beating Obama doesn’t make much sense because I’m not running again, that we can start getting some cooperation again.”

Among the issues he said might benefit from an increased willingness to negotiate: deficit reduction, infrastructure improvements, and immigration reform.

“My expectation is that if we can break this fever, that we can invest in clean energy and energy efficiency because that’s not a partisan issue,” he said. 

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