Emanuel: Obama will prevail in long run

President Obama's former chief of staff, current Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, says his ex-boss faces a major re-election challenge with the economy but has made tough decisions that will benefit him and the country in the long term. "I often advised the president about doing the quick political thing, and he looked at the long term," Emanuel said on NBC's Meet The Press. "And he rejected the quick and political because it wasn't in America's interest."
Emanuel cited the health care law, new Wall Street financial regulations and assistance to the nation's auto industry as policies that will work long term.
As for Obama's 2012 re-election bid, Emanuel said, "there's no doubt there's a challenge politically because the economy is not where the American middle class needs it to be for their bottom line."
But Emanuel said Obama would prosper next year from the political contrast with the Republicans, taking aim at one in particular.
"There would not be an auto industry if Mitt Romney was president," Emanuel said. "He would have said, 'let it go bankrupt.'"
Emanuel also said that "everybody in public life" is responsible for improving the economy:
Everybody in corporate life is accountable for that result. And corporate life, you deal with it, if you're a public company with stockholders. For the President of the United States, for Members of Congress, also as you know, their ratings are low. They're facing challenges. You're accountable to try to get the results so the middle class can achieve the middle class gains, not only for themselves today but for their children.
... All of us in public life who seek public life, you know the bottom line is, try to make sure that people have the ability to achieve their dreams. And understand that your role in government, I don't create jobs. The President doesn't create jobs. You create conditions for jobs to take hold, for the businesses to create them.