Obama Makes Case for Second Term

Newt Gingrich or Mitt Romney? Or Michele Bachmann? It doesn't really matter who the Republican candidate is in the coming presidential election because the entire GOP is offering the same thing—lower taxes on the wealthy and fewer regulations on business—and that's an agenda Americans have already rejected, President Obama said on 60 Minutes last night, as he made the case for a second term. Combined with his speech in Kansas last week, Obama is clearly gearing up for the election season. "The contrast in visions between where I want to take the country and where they say they want to take the country is going to be stark," he said.

While Obama said that he has worked hard to find bipartisan solutions to the crises facing America, he says that Republicans made a political decision not to compromise, and instead be intransigent and blame him for the problems they caused. "So if you take my name out of it, and just look at the ideas that we've been presenting, these are common sense, mainstream ideas that Republican presidents in the past have supported," said Obama. The president also said he believes he has accomplished a lot already—killing Osama bin Laden and 22 of the top 30 al-Qaeda leaders, saving the auto industry, ending "Don't Ask Don't Tell" in the military, and signing a health care law. (More President Obama stories.)