President Obama did a little bit of politics during his Monday visit to Iowa but indicated he is still waiting before jumping all the way in.
"Right now, I'm going to try to stay out of the campaign season … partly because I can't keep track of all the candidates," Obama said when asked to assess the contenders' education policies.
"So," he added, "I'll wait until it's winnowed down a little bit before I have an opinion."
Obama, who jump-started his 2008 campaign with a win in the Iowa Democratic caucuses, did shadow box a little with the Republicans during a town hall at a high school in Des Moines, referring at points to GOP criticism of teachers' unions.
"I can't tell you who to vote for … at least not right now," Obama said at one point. "Later I will."
He added: "But I can tell you who to vote against, and that is somebody who decides that somehow teachers don't deserve the kind of respect and decent pay that they deserve."
One of the students asked about a Republican candidate — unnamed — who has proposed to "cut government spending to politically biased colleges." (Ben Carson has discussed such a plan.)
"First of all, I didn't hear this candidate say that," Obama said. "I have no idea what that means — I suspect he doesn't either."
At the beginning of the event, Obama said he wanted to avoid politics in part because he knows Iowans are hearing from all the 2016 candidates.
"I know you guys are all about to be flooded with ads and calls from a bunch of folks who want this job," Obama said. "I just can't imagine what kind of person would put themselves through something like this."
