The White House said Thursday that President Barack Obama was barely paying attention to the Republican race to unseat him in 2012, as a possible foe Mitt Romney threw his hat into the ring. But it did mount a detailed defence of Obama's economic record, as Romney warned that the Democrat carried into office in 2008 amid souring hopes for change, he had "failed America" and made the recession longer and worse.
Asked whether Obama was beginning to eye the accelerating 2012 race, as aides built his own campaign machinery, White House spokesman Jay Carney suggested it was not yet time for election talk.