“Mr. President, have you looked at your pension?” Romney said.
“I don’t look at my pension,” Obama responded. “It’s not as big as yours, so it doesn’t take as long. I don’t check it that often.”
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Full text of President Obama’s speech on national security
“We must define the nature and scope of this struggle, or else it will define us,” the president said.
Later, Obama raised Romney’s remarks to wealthy donors at a private fundraiser disparaging “the 47 percent” of Americans who do not pay income taxes. It was a line of attack that he didn’t make in the previous debate, which mystified many of his allies.
“I believe Governor Romney is a good man — loves his family, cares about his faith,” Obama said. “But I also believe that when he said behind closed doors that 47 percent of the country considered themselves victims who refuse personal responsibility, think about who he was talking about.”
Obama, mentioning people on Social Security, soldiers and veterans, as well as students, said: “I want to fight for them. That’s what I’ve been doing for the last four years. Because if they succeed, I believe the country succeeds.”
Romney said the president and his campaign were trying to characterize him “as someone who’s very different than who I am.”
“I care about 100 percent of the American people,” Romney said. “I want 100 percent of the American people to have a bright and prosperous future. I care about our kids. I understand what it takes to make a bright and prosperous future for America again.”
The former Massachusetts governor seemed most confident when he talked about Obama’s stewardship of the nation’s beleaguered economy.
When a man who voted for Obama in 2008 said his everyday living expenses had grown too high, Romney told him, “I think you know that these last four years haven’t been so good as the president just described and that you don’t feel like you’re confident that the next four years are going to be much better, either.”
Romney cast Obama as a president who failed to deliver on his promises — to lower the unemployment rate, to cut the deficit, to lift people out of poverty and to create more jobs.
“The middle class is getting crushed under the policies of a president who has not understood what it takes to get the economy working again,” Romney said.
Romney continued to present a more moderate side than he did during the Republican primaries, a shift that became apparent during the last debate. When a young man asked how he would ensure he could get a job when he gets out of college, he mentioned government programs such as Pell grants and scholarships.
He also distanced himself from the policies of George W. Bush, the last Republican president, saying he would balance the budget, crack down on China and focus more on small business.
Obama, however, contended that Romney is more extreme than Bush.
“George Bush didn’t propose turning Medicare into a voucher. George Bush embraced comprehensive immigration reform. He didn’t call for self-deportation,” Obama said. “George Bush never suggested that we eliminate funding for Planned Parenthood, so there are differences between Governor Romney and George Bush, but they’re not on economic policy. In some ways, he’s gone to a more extreme place when it comes to social policy.”
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