President Obama ripped into Republican presidential candidates on Super Tuesday, using his first formal press conference in five months to dismiss what he labeled as casualness about war with Iran among his competitors for the White House.
“What is said on the campaign trail, those folks don’t have a lot of responsibilities,” Obama said, when asked about the heightened talks of military conflict with Iran. “They’re not commander in chief. If some of these folks think it’s time to launch a war, they should say so … everything else is just talk.”
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Obama has been under increased pressure in recent days to clarify under what circumstances he would use military force against Iran. In his White House meeting Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Obama pressed for a diplomatic solution even as Netanyahu kept potential military action in the forefront.
Answering questions from the White House press corps Tuesday, Obama did not lay out specific rationales for intervening in Iran, instead calling for a “careful, thoughtful, sober approach to a real problem.”
“We think it through; we don’t play politics with it,” he said.
Though the press conference was dominated by questions about Iran, Obama also talked about rising gas prices, immigration reform and the controversy surrounding conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh calling a female Georgetown University student who testified on Capitol Hill about her need for contraception a “slut.”
“All decent folks can agree that the remarks that were made don’t have any place in the public discourse,” Obama said.
“Women are going to make up their own mind in this election about who is advancing the issues they most care about,” Obama said, when asked if he agreed with top Democrats who contended that conservatives were conducting a “war on women.”
The 45-minute press conference came as voters in 10 states were casting ballots for Republican presidential candidates.
Obama has sought his share of the political spotlight from Republicans around the marquee voting contests. In addition to Tuesday’s nationally televised press conference, he traveled to Iowa when it was holding its caucuses in January and recently did the same in battleground Michigan.
“Now I understand there are some political contests going on tonight,” Obama said, casually kick-starting his remarks in the standing-room-only briefing room.
When asked if he had a message for Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney, Obama simply said: “Good luck tonight.”
