Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton took a shot at the Obama recovery Wednesday, telling CNN the main reason she was running for president was to "deal with the economy" and "get it working again."
In light of Donald Trump's virtual assurance of being the Republican nominee for president, Anderson Cooper asked Clinton how she was prepared to go up against him in a general election. Clinton said he was a "loose cannon" and "loose cannons tend to misfire."
"If he is a loose cannon, though, he's certainly willing to say things during a race against opponents, and we've seen this already, that a lot of candidates were not prepared for on the GOP side," Cooper said. "Are you ready for that?"
"Well, I've sort of been in the arena for 25 years, and I think nearly everything that can be thrown at somebody in public life has come my way," Clinton said.
"You feel like you know how to run against him?" Cooper asked.
"Oh, absolutely," she said. "But I'm not running against him. I'm running my own campaign. I'm running to become president, to really deal with the economy, get it working again. Take on all the barriers that stand in the way of people getting ahead. I have a very clear mission in this campaign.
Clinton has consistently praised Obama's handling of the financial crisis and essentially presented her candidacy as a third term of his policies. However, despite the White House's constant touting of job creation, economic growth has largely been weak and wages have stayed flat throughout the Obama administration.