Jim Lehrer: Welcome, gentlemen. President Obama, we’ll begin with you. Unemployment has been over 8 percent for 43 months, and most people think the country is on the wrong track. With recovery so slow, why do you deserve a second term?
BO: Well, as you know, Jim, we inherited the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. And then Mitt Romney said he thinks 47 percent of the American people are slackers who just mooch off the rest of us. That’s an insult to millions of veterans, seniors and other hard-working Americans who actually pay higher tax rates than Mitt Romney does on the millions he still earns from outsourcing American jobs to China.
JL: Governor Romney, how would you respond?
MR: Jim, in Barack Obama’s economy there are 23 million Americans who want full-time work who can’t find it. And to my friends in the liberal media who say my numbers don’t add up, let me be clear: That’s 13 million people who don’t have jobs, and 10 million who want to work full time but can only find part-time jobs in this disastrous Obama economy. I think we can all agree that 13 plus 10 equals 23.
JL: Mr. President, your rebuttal?
BO: The plain fact is that far more Americans have been insulted by my opponent than are having trouble finding work. The 47 percent he says are shiftless losers means 47 percent out of 310 million of us. That’s about 145 million good-for-nothing, low-life Americans. And 145 million divided by 23 million is more than 6. So when you look at the bigger picture, six Americans have been insulted by Mitt Romney for every American who can’t find as much work as they might want. That’s not ideology, Jim — it’s math.
MR: Can I make a quick point?
JL: Briefly, please.
MR: Just briefly, each of the 23 million Americans suffering in this jobless Obama economy has at least two parents, 2.1 children on average, and at least four friends, including their spouse. You can’t view the 23 million in isolation. And when you multiply those 23 million hopeless Americans by at least eight others who feel their pain, you end up with a lot more Americans than I’ve insulted. And I’m using very conservative estimates.
BO: Jim? Just, in fairness, to respond?
JL: Yes?
BO: Forty-seven percent.
