Obama: Republicans will struggle to defend record

[January 27, 2012]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama is signaling he'll base part of his re-election campaign on an argument that Republicans are pushing discredited economic ideas.

In an interview with ABC News, Obama says the best strategy for economic revival is avoiding the Bush administration and financial community policies that led to the near-collapse of the economy in the fall of 2008.

Obama said the country has "an economy that was built on debt and flimsy financial deals." He added in the interview broadcast Friday that this is a strategy the Republican Party will have to defend this fall, "whether it's Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich or Rick Santorum, or somebody else,"

The president said, "Why we would want to adopt something that we just tried, and didn't work, doesn't make sense."

[Associated Press]

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.