In Iowa, Obama looks to leave his imprint on 2016 race

DES MOINES, Iowa — President Barack Obama won't be on the ballot in 2016, but on Monday he showed he's looking for ways to put his imprint on the race to succeed him.

With the campaign intensifying, Obama showed up in Iowa, the Midwestern state whose leadoff caucuses were crucial to his own political rise and will have the first say in winnowing the current crop of 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 as he opened a town hall at North High School. He jokingly added, "I just can't imagine what kind of person would put themselves through something like that."

Officially, Obama came to Iowa to hold an education town hall meeting and announce plans to let aspiring college students apply for federal financial aid earlier. But his visit was also an opportunity to draw attention to Democratic policies and contrast them with the Republicans trying to reclaim the White House.

For Obama, keeping a Democrat in the White House could be crucial to the longevity of many of the actions he's taken while in office. Stymied by Congress, he's wielded his executive power to implement changes to immigration and energy policies, among other issues. He also acted alone to re-establish diplomatic relations with Cuba and will leave the next president a non-binding nuclear agreement with Iran.

By acting on his own authority so often, he's risked having many of his policies wiped away or reversed by a future president. Several candidates vying for the Republican nomination have vowed to pull out of the Iran deal, upend his health care reform overhaul and end some Obama immigration policies.

This being Iowa, the election was on the minds of many of those attending the president's event. Obama said he wouldn't tell anyone who to vote for — "at least not right now; later I will."

Still, he criticized congressional Republicans for wanting to keep broad domestic budget cuts in place and urged voters not to back candidates who blame teachers for problems in education, a slap at Republicans who have fought teachers' unions

A young woman volunteering for Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Democratic front-runner, tried to pull Obama into his own party's primary fight. She asked the president whether he thought a proposal from Clinton's top challenger, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, to make education at public universities free was realistic.

Without mentioning Sanders, Obama plugged his own proposal for free tuition at two-year community colleges. If that can be accomplished, Obama said, "then I think we can start building from there."

The president's trip to Iowa was pegged to Education Secretary Arne Duncan's annual back-to-school bus tour. If Obama had wanted to stay out of the campaign fray, however, he could have joined Duncan in one of the six other states the secretary is visiting.

Instead, Obama chose Des Moines, the capital of a politically important state that sparks nostalgia for the president and his closest advisers. Iowa voters carried Obama to a surprise victory over Hillary Rodham Clinton in the 2008 Democratic caucuses. He returned to the state on the eve of the 2012 election for his final rally as a candidate, an emotional event that drew 20,000 supporters.

Even in a state flooded with candidates seeking to carve out their own legacy, Obama's advisers know that a presidential visit still garners attention.

Republicans hoping to replace Obama certainly noticed. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio wrote an op-ed article in Monday's Des Moines Register newspaper about his own higher education plans, saying he would reform the college accreditation system and bring down tuition costs by allowing new schools to compete with traditional institutions.

Rubio said Obama's education policies, including his proposal for free community college, only "double-down on Washington's failed strategy of spending more taxpayer money on the same outdated model."

The president wasn't scheduled to meet with any presidential candidates while in Iowa, including Clinton, the former secretary of state, who was holding events a few hours away.

Obama hasn't endorsed any of the Democratic contenders, though he's said Clinton — his former rival-turned ally — would make an excellent president. His spokesman has said the president feels the same about Vice President Joe Biden, who is weighing making a late entry into the race.