Obama comes out fighting in Texas

AUSTIN, Texas (KXAN) - President Barack Obama came to Texas on Tuesday to offer a full-throated defense of his first-term policies -- including enacting a health care law and winding down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and ending discrimination based on sexual orientation.

"It was the right thing to do," Obama said in San Antonio during his first stop in the Lone Star State as he talked about actions taken on those issues and others.

The president came to Texas -- as state the national Democratic ticket has not carried since 1976 -- to raise money for the fall campaign against presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney. But he laid out themes he's been taking around the country in his bid for a second term.

He did not back down from his controversial and sometimes unpopular health care law, which was recently upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. And he made clear that he would use the mission to kill 9-11 mastermind Osama bin Laden as a political asset.

"I promised to go after bin Laden -- we got him," Obama said to cheers inside the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, before heading to the Texas capital city of Austin, for two fund-raising events.

Descending the steps from Air Force One, Obama was greeted by San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, state Rep. Joaquin Castro and U.S. Rep. Charles Gonzalez. They all walked over to shake hands, chat and stop for photos with people waiting in a fence-off area on the airport runway.

He is expected to arrive at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport around 4:30 p.m. and will head directly to the Austin Music Hall for a fundraising event that gets under way at 5:45 p.m.