'There is not a game, there’s nothing casual about it,' Obama says. Obama blasts GOP's 'casual' Iran talk

President Barack Obama Tuesday used his first press conference in four months to explicitly attack his Republican opponents for the “casualness” of their rhetoric regarding war with Iran.

“What’s said on the campaign trail, those folks don’t have a lot of responsibilities. They’re not commander-in-chief,” he said.


Obama’s press conference came on the afternoon of Super Tuesday, as 10 states hold Republican presidential primaries, and he used the opportunity to remind voters that he’s a president serious about global threats from Iran and continuing to improve the economy.

“There’s no doubt that those who are suggesting or proposing or beating the drums of war should explain clearly to the American people what they think the costs and benefits of war would be,” Obama said. “Typically it’s not people who are popping off who pay the price.”

The president defended his administration’s efforts to fight Iran’s nuclear threat, stressing that a decision on whether to take military action is not an immediate one.

“This notion that somehow we have a choice to make in the next week or two weeks or month or two months is not borne out by the facts,” Obama said.

Tuesday’s was his first news conference since November, when he took questions from several reporters while in Hawaii for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, and his first one at the White House since early October.

“I understand there are some political contests going on tonight,” Obama joked as he entered, adding that he wanted to take some questions “which I’m sure won’t be political in nature.” In all, Obama took questions from 10 reporters during the 45-minute session and there was plenty of discussion of politics.

Asked about his phone call to Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown law student called a “slut” by conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, Obama said he wouldn’t comment on the advertisers pulling out of Limbaugh’s show, the politics of the flap or “the sincerity of his apology.”

But Obama added that “all decent folks can agree that the remarks that were made don’t have any place in the public discourse.” Invoking his daughters Malia and Sasha, Obama said it’s important for young people to know they can “speak their mind in a civil and thoughtful way, and I don’t want them attacked or called horrible names because they’re being good citizens.”

Asked about possible military intervention in Syria, Obama said that while the violence there is “heartbreaking and outrageous,” it would be “a mistake” for the United States to take unilateral action in response.

Obama said that Bashar Assad’s removal of power was a certainty, but despite the comparisons made to how his administration handled the dismantling of Muammar Qadhafi’s regime in Libya, Obama said Syria “is a much more complicated situation” requiring broad-based cooperation.

Obama also addressed boosting oil and gas production while investing in new energy technologies as a response to rising gas prices. He said the administration’s Monday decision to move the coming G-8 summit from Chicago to Camp David was to provide an “informal setting” for the meeting of top world leaders, and called on Congress to move on several tax proposals he’s made.

On his own, though, he announced a program for homeowners with mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Administration to refinance their loans and save an average of $1,000 annually. “We’re going to do this on our own, we don’t need congressional authorization to do it.”

“I’m not going to be one of those people who believe that we should just sit by and wait for the housing market to hit bottom,” he said.