But the result, his opponents might suggest, was the same.
Q. Is this going to be the death of public schools, as some opponents suggest?
"My opponent suggests an old answer, just go back to having government solve all our problems," the President says.
Opponents of these laws have suggested that they could be used against legitimate dissent.
Opponents, though, suggested that the amendment was the first step on a slippery slope.
Opponents of the law suggest that the process in and of itself is difficult to manage.
And few opponents of the war have suggested that a soldier must refuse to obey an order to serve in Iraq.
Opponents of the plan suggest that government involvement will quash innovation.
Some young opponents suggest that privatization is a scheme designed to enrich management.
Some opponents of the board's monopsony have suggested it to be replaced by a 'dual market' system.