Carney says White House ‘not focused very much’ on Republican race

White House press secretary Jay Carney argued Wednesday that President Obama’s Kansas speech on economic fairness was not intended to position the president in contrast to newly minted Republican front-runner Newt Gingrich.

Carney was asked during an appearance on MSNBC whether positioning the president as a champion of “fairness” would help him in a potential general election matchup against Gingrich.

“I think, as this president knows well, primary processes are complex and their outcomes are never quite clear until they’re a done deal,” Carney said. “We’re not focused very much on that race.”

{mosads}Carney also insisted that “this speech wasn’t an election speech.”

But despite that insistence that the address — which spanned nearly an hour and focused on themes of income inequality — Carney disputed the notion that the president had been unwilling to directly engage with Republican opponents.

“I think we’ve been pretty explicit — the president has, I have, and others about what the obstacle is in Congress, and we’ve named names and parties and we’re going to keep pressing on, and we haven’t minced words about that,” Carney said.

Carney also argued that the president’s legislative agenda — including pushing for the payroll-tax-cut extension — would directly ease the pressure that has been squeezing the middle class for the past three decades.

“The policies he’s pushing right now — that he’s confident he will get some of — go right to helping the middle class,” Carney said.