Obama on GOP Field: 'I'll Be Ready for Them'

President Obama is not too concerned with the 2012 election right now, he says: “I'll let (the Republicans) winnow it down a little bit.” But when the time comes, “I'll be ready for them,” he tells Wolf Blitzer in a CNN interview. Discussing the economy, Obama said that he’d “be accountable” ahead of the election. The “buck stops with me,” he said, though he added that he inherited a "mess” from George W. Bush.

Other highlights:

• He criticized Republicans' "ideological rigidity" for getting in the way of economic growth.
• He said he'd cut Rick Perry "some slack" over his Ben Bernanke comments because Perry is new to presidential campaigning.
• Responding to Mitt Romney's "corporations are people" comment, he said that he agrees "corporations are vital to American life," but if "you tell me that every corporate tax break that's out there is some how good for ordinary Americans ... then that I disagree with."

(More President Obama stories.)