Obama Blasts GOP Field, Promises Jobs Plan

Sounding every inch a campaigner, President Obama went on the attack yesterday as his bus tour of Midwestern states rolled into Minnesota and Iowa. "There are going to be two contrasting visions that are going to be presented" in the run-up to the presidential election, Obama told supporters in rural Iowa, Politico reports. "I'm a side that says we live within our means and invest in jobs. The other side says we are going to make sure those who have benefited the most will pay the least."

Obama vowed that when Congress returns in September he'll put forward "a very specific plan to boost the economy, to create jobs and to control our deficit." And if Congress can't get it done, "then we'll be running against a Congress that isn't doing anything for the American people, and the choice will be very stark and very clear," he added. Obama said "many of these ideas traditionally have had Republican support," and in a direct dig at Mitt Romney noted: "It’s amusing to watch one of the major Republican candidates now trying to wriggle out of the fact that my health care bill is very similar to the health care bill he passed at a time when he needed to compromise because he was living in a Democratic-majority state." (More Election 2012 stories.)