“”I don’t view this as risk reward. I, frankly, view it as doing what you ought to do.””
What’s “risk reward?” Is that political insider lingo for payoffs, etc. for supporting something that will lose reeelection votes?
More I read this piece, it’s a fascinating opening to Bush’s mind and thought patterns.
“Risk reward” in this context means the expected value (percentage probability times benefits) of all possible outcomes. Whether or not people explicitly quantify their expectations, that’s the way people more or less behave in their everyday choices. President Bush is saying that he rejects this approach for the Immigration Bill; the bill is an “ought” for him, a moral rule, enlightened or revealed knowledge. Does that sound like a sane approach?