i'm wolf blitzer. we're here in the cnn election center for comprehensive analysis for tonight's second debate between president obama and governor mitt romney, debated by candy crowley. romney accused the president of waiting too long to call the

september 11th attack on the united states consulate in benghazi libya an act of terror. the president said romney simply had his facts wrong. watch this. >> the day after the attack, governor, i stood in the rose garden, and i told the american people and the world that we are going to find out exactly what happened, that this was an act of terror, and i also said that we're going to hunt down those who committed this crime. and then a few days later i was there reading the caskets coming into andrews air force base. and grieving with the families. and the suggestion that anybody in my team, the secretary of state, our u.n. ambassador, anybody on my team would play politics or mislead when we lost four of our own, governor, is offensive.

that's not what we do. that's not what i do as president. that's not what i do as commander in chief. >> governor, if you want to reply, quickly. >> i certainly do. i think it is interesting the president just said something which is that on the day after the attack, he went in the rose garden, and said that this was an act of terror. you said in the rose garden the day after the attack it was an act of terror. it was not a spontaneous demonstration, is that what you're saying. >> please proceed, governor. >> i want to make sure we get that for the record because it took the president 14 days before he called the attack in benghazi an act of terror. >> get the transcript. >> he did in fact, sir. let me call it an act of terror. >> can you say that a little louder, candy? >> he did call it an act of terror. it did, as well, take -- it did as well take two weeks or so for the whole idea, there being a

riot through the about this tape to come out, you're correct about that. >> the administration indicated that this was a reaction to a video and was a spontaneous reaction. it took them a long time to say this was a terrorist act by a terrorist group. and to suggest -- am i incorrect in that regard, on sunday the -- your secretary -- >> candy -- >> excuse me. the ambassador of the united nations, one of the sunday television shows and spoke about how this is a spontaneous -- >> i'm happy to have a longer conversation about foreign policy -- >> but i want to move you on. >> i'm happy do that too. >> lively exchange there. the results are in from our poll of registered voters who watched this second debate. here is the headline. 46% say president obama won tonight compared to 39% who say governor romney won. we also have some brand-new numbers just coming in. we asked who would better handle

the issue of foreign policy? 49% said president obama, compared to 47% for governor romney. we asked if president obama offered a clear plan for solving the country's problems, 38% of debate watchers said yes. 61% said no. we asked the same question about governor romney. did he offer a clear plan for solving the country's problems. 49% said yes. 50% said no. remember, this is a scientific poll that reflects the views of people who watched the debate and our sample indicates that 33% of those who were surveyed were democratic, 33% were republican. that sample is about 8 points more than republican, eight points more republican than average of cnn polls taken in 2012 of all americans, so the respondents were more republican than the general public. let's continue our analysis. >> with our contributors and

analysts. you look at the overall number, people say obama won the debate, but when you look at the breakdown in terms of en the economy, on taxes, on the deficit, promising numbers for mitt romney. >> what do you vote on? do you vote on the basis of how articulate somebody is, how good somebody counterpunches or the economy, when you think somebody has a plan to change or improve the economy, somebody has a plan to fix the deficit. that's the key thing that drives elections because it gets to voter behavior, not just debate likes and dislikes. it looks like mitt romney has done better than -- >> there is a different dynamic too. he wanted to energy his base, get his momentum back. he picked up something for that. there is a cost. the cost was he was tacking mitt romney's plan, legitimizing mitt romney's plan, that's what the debate was about most of the evening. we're going to see numbers that say romney has a better plan. also, only 33% of this survey was republicans. but 58% thought romney had a

better economic plan. that's a pretty impressive number tonight for mitt romney. >> here's what the president did very well. he won on the attack. people thought in this poll that the president attacked more than mitt romney but also found him to be more likable at the same time. so he managed to attack while not alienating people. >> yet you look at who is a better leader in those polls, they go more for mitt romney. >> and we started out the evening talking a lot about the search for the women voter. and i think one of the things this debate underscored is, yes, the economy, jobs, deficits are very important, but other issues are also important. and i think mitt romney scored some points, ben has been making the point, on some of the social issues that also draw women voters ahead, that do have an influence on this race. my reading on this is if you look at this poll, given the -- how the composition of the poll, that president obama scored a solid victory tonight in terms

of the public's perception. and yet at the same time, mitt romney has a lot of things he can find consolation in, which this is going to be a rip roaring end of the race. >> we're having mike problems. to wolf to look at the uncommitted voters. >> let's look at the focus group of uncommitted voters. our focus group in ohio, columbus ohio, they responded to the candidates tonight. we measured their reaction as they listened to president obama and governor mitt romney. the green line represents the men. the yellow line is for women. check it out. here is president obama's best moment of the night, happened around 9:07 p.m. eastern. the question was on the future of the jobs market. listen to the president talk about jobs. >> we got to make sure that we are -- we have the best education system in the world. the fact that you're going to college is great, but i want everybody to get a great education and we worked hard to make sure that student loans are available for folks like you, but i also want to make sure

community colleges are offering slots for workers to get retrained for the jobs that are out there right now and the jobs of the future. >> let's look at mitt romney's best moment. he peaked at around 9:24 p.m. eastern. the question was on eliminating tax deductions. listen to mitt romney's high point on taxes. >> i want to bring the rates down. i want to simplify the tax code. and i want to get middle income taxpayers to have lower taxes. and the reason i want middle income taxpayers to have lower taxes is because middle income taxpayers have been buried over the past four years. >> let's go to cnn's erin burnett in columbus, ohio, with a focus group, a key battleground state. take us in depth. >> wolf, it is interesting here when you think about some of the moments and when i ask the focus group members here, do you remember those highs and do you remember what they had to say about taxes and jobs and everyone here, yes, you do remember, sit here for 90 minutes and they do remember

every one of those moments which is very impressive. the thing that i want to highlight, though, is that our focus group felt that when they started talking positively like you heard there, talking about jobs and what you're going to do, they like that, they didn't like then an automatically scored negative when the candidates would start to then say well here is what obama has done poorly over the last four years or here is what governor romney did poorly when he was governor. that's what they did not like. the moments that stood out here was with the gender conversation, the libya conversation and actually china had some people who were also interested in it too. >> all right, aaron, stand by. i want to take a closer look now at the low points of the debate for both president owe balmia and governor romney left's begin with the president's low points. it came at around 10:25 p.m. eastern, right near the end of the debate. the question was on assault weapons, but the president ended up talking about teachers. >> this is part of the choice in this election. when governor romney was asked

whether teachers, hiring more teachers was important to growing our economy, governor romney said that doesn't grow our economy. >> the question was with guns here. i need to move us along. the question was with guns. >> i understand. but this makes a difference in terms of whether or not we can move the economy forward for the young people and reduce violence. >> that was president obama's lowest moment according to the focus group. mitt romney's lowest point was around 10:06 p.m. eastern, asked about his stance on immigration and pivoted to talk about his investments. >> any investments i have over the last eight years have been managed by a blind trust. and i understand they do include investments outside the united states, including in chinese companies. mr. president, if you looked at your pension, have you looked at your pension? >> i've got to say it -- >> mr. president, have you looked at your pension? >> you know, i don't look at my pension, it is not as big as yours, so it doesn't take as long.

>> let's go back to erin burnett, in columbus with the focus group. what do you make of that, erin? >> well, everybody remembered the pension moment. the size of the pension, right? uniformly. everybody remembered that. and scored it as a low. but i want to go to mike over here because you thought this was a little more complicated, not as much of a low as overall our focus group rated this. >> it was an interesting exchange. i think what the governor was trying to get out with the president was, like, hey, his investment -- the president earlier was insinuating he was investing in chinese companies. and i think what he was -- the governor came back to the president with later was, hey, you know, it's a blind trust, it is mutual funds, it's this, you know, very well the president could have outside investments that unknowingly to him that are invested in chinese companies. so i thought it was just a little bit of a low blow and just kind of sniping that really didn't mean anything or was unnecessary. >> maybe everyone is invested in

china and may not realize it in some way, shape or form but people did not like how mitt romney handled himself at that moment. we had a very spirited conversation about gender. let me start with you. what was your takeaway on the conversation about equal pay for women? >> i thought it was a great question asked and i was very concerned with romney's response. i appreciate what he said when he was staffing his cabinet, he made sure that he had women and wanted to get the skilled women in there, but he never addressed the question. he never addressed the fact that disparity exists, and that even though a law has been passed, he wouldn't work to make sure that that was enforced or that he would take any efforts. where as it seemed the president not only got the law passed, but is making sure we're trying to enforce it. >> that's interesting. even -- i don't want to be the sexist here, but i'll go to another woman, you had a different point of view on that exchange. >> yes. my thought on it was that the president was more interested in the fact that women get equal pay because we're the

breadwinners, where as my thought is that, as the governor's thought was, was that we get equal pay because we have the education, the same talents, and that we worked as hard as the man has for the same position. that's what the qualification should be for that position and not be determined by the gender. >> there were different takeaways on the gender. there was one moment, and we started having a very spirited conversation on libya, and there are many people here with different points of view as there are around the country. but everybody here, not everybody, but overwhelming, did not like how mitt romney handled the libyan bombing. am i characterizing this fairly? just want to make sure. what did you think mitt romney did wrong? >> i felt mitt romney should have given the president the respect of being the commander in chief and having the burden of responsibility. he owned up to having the burden of responsibility. and he took onus in it. and i thought governor romney should have let that just -- let it go. >> and let me just -- one final

comment on that, let me come over here to you, you had some frustration, specific part of that moment. >> i think it is an error to politicize a tragedy like that. no presidency is going to be immune from terror and no presidency is going to ignore terror or look for something like that, no more than president bush was responsible for 9/11. i don't hold president obama responsible for what happened in libya. >> all right. those are sort of the takeaways on the highs and lows, but some of the topics that got everybody talking here, wolf. >> you got an intelligent group of undecided voters in that focus group, erin, thank you very much. >> very informed, wolf. >> they are very informed. thank them for me, please. and for our viewers. by the way, we did check for president obama, he had three low points throughout the debate, mitt romney, according to these people in this focus group, had seven lows. up next, tom foreman's keeping them honest with another reality check. this time about illegal immigration. and in just a few minutes, you'll be able to see an encore

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tom foreman has a reality check about what the candidates said on the sensitive issue of fixing illegal immigration. tom. >> wolf, republicans have been after the president for months saying he's ignored this issue of illegal immigration, listen to how mitt romney went after him tonight and how the president answered. >> why did he fail to even promote legislation that would have provided an answer for those that want to come here legally, and for those that are here illegally today? >> we put more border patrol on

than any time in history and the flow of undocumented workers across the border is actually lower than it's been in 40 years. >> the fundamental claim here is that the president promised comprehensive immigration reform and he produced no immigration reform. i want to look at the president's claim first, though it gets at something that republicans have pushed beyond that. they have largely suggested that the president has not been interested in engaging this issue of illegal immigrants and point to things like this, as evidence. these are numbers from the department of homeland security, from 2000 to 2011. and look what happened with immigration arrests. they were quite high, 1.8% in 2000. through the bush years, a little up, a little down, generally down. then you hit 2009, barack obama is in office and they go steadily down. many republicans want to point to that and say, look, this is evidence he's panering the latino vote, doesn't want to be tough on illegal immigrants. there is more to the picture.

this is what is happening to the people who are being arrested. this is the record of deportations from 2000 up until 2011. they were quite low, but under barack obama, they have steadily risen when you get to his time here, look, that was rising under george bush, 2009, this is the highest level that we have ever seen under any president in terms of deportations. barack obama embraced the policy of george bush. he's increased funding for the border, more guards, more motion detectors and cameras, more drones and airplanes and helicopters, so much so that when you combine it with the economic changes, that have made a lot of jobs here dry up, the pew hispanic center says we have a net illegal immigration in this country of about zero. so barack obama can properly say he has engaged the issue of illegal immigration. on the more narrow count, what mitt romney said about producing immigration reform, he's absolutely right on this. barack obama did promise he

would have comprehensive immigration reform. he did not produce it. they did try to do something on the dream act. he took some administrative action to try to help the children of people who are here illegally. but he did not produce legislation, though he says if he can be re-elected, he will try it in a second term. wolf? >> good point, thanks very much for tom. back to anderson. >> nine minutes away from replaying the debate for you. let's talk over what we learned tonight, what tomorrow what the headlines are going to be. >> i think we're trying to make sense of this polling data that shows he won the debate, but on key points, the economy, romney scored better. you can make sense of it. people vote for people, not plans. the last time we saw romney, he was able to be the best storyteller on this stage. he talked about his values first. then he laid out the plan. this time romney was more the list guy. he was thrown off by obama. obama was able to go on the attack and stay likable and i think people will vote for the person, not the plan.

>> you think even though romney is scoring higher on the economy -- >> yeah, all the plan stuff, but look at obama. obama looks like a winner. he's happy. romney looks shaken. i think they'll vote for the person. >> no. not on people or the plan. it is always a mix. people vote on the basis of two things. they vote on someone's ideology and their persona. do i trust him, do i like them? put them together, that drives voter behavior. i think when you look at the whole trend of what happened since the first debate, the trend is still going in mitt romney's direction. the president, if he had a good night tonight, it is because he got no hit the last time, so he gets a couple of hits tonight and everybody says look at him hit. >> you think the people are saying he won in relation to how badly he did the first time. >> you look at the president in first debate, this debate he had a much better debate, so people have a nice aura about that. when you go into the voting booth on the economy, taxes, deficit, jobs, the issues that

drive, it is hard to look at cnn's data and show this is anything but a bad night for the president. >> i think clearly the consensus is a good night for the president. we have had two debates, the weakest moments in romney's debate was on foreign policy. you got to look at the split decision this point, i think this week belongs to the president and we'll see what happens. >> if the next debate is on foreign policy, does that allow president obama to make any more inroads on the economy? >> there were questions about the libya and the administration, and there will be a chance for a redo. it is a debate about foreign policy. look for both of them to talk about how important a strong economy is. strong america. the confrontation about china is about the economy. this was a better night for the president.

i think the net after two debates is you have to say romney still has the plus of the two debates. we have been talking about our poll, the focus group being conducted by democratic and republicans about walmart moms, moms who -- suburban moms, moms who decide the election. romney scored points for having a five-point plan. moms still want it see the president make a case for the second term. in the end, obama wins more on the dial. most moms say the debate was a draw. if people think you have a plan, likability comes into play. as i've been traveling, this is what people say, i want to vote for him, but he hasn't told me with what he's going to do. >> obama proved tonight, he conceded mitt romney has a plan for change because he kept attacking it all night long. the debate is not whether romney's plan say good plan for change, or a bad plan for change, but that's -- 60% of americans think this country is on the wrong track. guess what they want? >> romney wants to go backward, you want to go backward or

forward. >> romney made the case we're not going to settle for -- >> you want to go forward to what? >> 30 seconds left. >> two weeks ago the president was solidly ahead. he was moving toward a big victory. the first debate changed the arc of this, put romney back in contention. i think tonight slowed his momentum way down. i think we're in a real horse race. >> let's look at the poll numbers again, wolf. >> thanks, anderson. recapping the headline from our poll of registered voters who watched this second presidential debate. 46% say president obama won tonight compared to 39% who say governor romney won tonight. a reminder to you about the breakdown of our sample, one-third of those we surveyed were democratic. one-third were republican. but that sample somewhat more republican than you would find in the general public. we also would like to know what struck you the most about tonight's debate. go to cnn.com/facebook to post your comment. we're interested. we're going to show you some of

the comments. look at the top debate issues trending on facebook. [ man ] in hong kong, on my way to the board meeting... anne's tablet called my phone. anne's tablet was chatting with a tablet in sydney... a desktop in zurich... and a telepresence room in brazil. the secure cloud helped us get some numbers from my assistant's pc in new york. and before i reached the top, the board meeting became a congrats we sold the company party. wait til my wife's phone hears about this. [ cellphone vibrating ] [ female announcer ] with cisco at the center, working together has never worked so well. [ female announcer ] with cisco at the center, you see us, at the start of the day. on the company phone list that's a few names longer. you see us bank on busier highways. on once empty fields. everyday you see all the ways all of us at us bank are helping grow our economy.

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we took a concerted effort to go out and find women who had backgrounds that could be qualified to become members of our cabinet. i went to a number of women's groups and said can you help us find folks. they brought us whole binders full of women. >> the candidates are generating plenty of buzz tonight online, you heard mitt romney talking about his efforts to recruit women when he was governor of massachusetts. his term, binders full of women, became a social media sensation. on facebook, use of the phrase binders of women skyrocketed as for other words in the debate,

gang bangers, sketchy, self-deportati self-deportation. the words mentioned most on facebook, romney, obama, women, and candy crowley. >> did you say gang bangers? >> i did. >> a first for everything. >> that was mentioned. next presidential debate next monday in florida. >> here's the debate right now, encore presentation. >> good evening from hofstra, in hempstead, new york. we're here for the second presidential debate, a town hall, sponsored by the commission on presidential debates. the gallup organization chose 82 uncommitted voters from the new york area. their questions will drive the night. my goal is to give the conversation direction and to ensure questions get answer. the questions are known to me and my team only. neither the commission nor the candidates have seen them.

i hope to get to as many questions as possible, and because i am the optimistic sort, i'm sure the candidates will oblige by keeping their answers concise and on point. each candidate has as much as two minutes to respond to a common question and there will be a two-minute follow-up. the audience has been asked to refrain from clapping or booing. we will set aside that agreement just this once to welcome president barack obama and governor mitt romney. [ applause ] >> gentlemen, thank you both for joining us here tonight.

we have a lot of people that have been waiting all day to talk to you, so i want to get right too. governor romney, as you know, you won the coin toss, so the first question will go to you. i want to turn to a first-time voter, mr. jeremy epstein. >> mr. president, governor romney, as a 20-year-old college student, all i hear from professors, neighbors and others is that when i graduate, i will have little chance to get employment. what can you say to reassure me, but more importantly my parents that i'll be able to sufficiently support myself after i graduate? >> thank you, jeremy, i appreciate your question and thank you for being here this evening. thank you for your time. thank you to hofstra university and to candy crowley for organizing and leading this event. thank you mr. president for also being part of this debate. your question is one that's being asked by college kids all across the country, as in pennsylvania with someone who just graduated. this was in philadelphia, and

she said, i've got my degree, i can't find a job. i've got three part-time jobs, they're just barely enough to pay for my food and pay for an apartment. i can't begin to pay back my student loans. we have to do two things. we have to makes it easier for kids to afford college and also make sure that when they get out of college, there's a job. when i was governor of massachusetts, to get a high school degree you had to pass an exam, if you graduated in the top quarter of your class, we gave you a john and abigail adams scholarship. i want to make sure we keep our pell grant program growing, and also our loan program so people are able to afford school. but the key thing is to make sure you can get a job when you get out of school. what's happened over the last four years has been very, very hard for america's young people. i want you to be able to get a job. i know what it takes to get this economy going. with half of college kids graduating this year, without a college -- without a job, and

without a college level job, that's just unacceptable. and you've got more and more debt on your back. so more debt and less jobs. i know what it takes to create good jobs and to make sure you have the opportunity you deserve. and kids across the country are going to recognize, we're bringing back an economy. it is not going to be like the last four years. the middle class has been crushed over the last four years and jobs have been too scarce. i know what it takes to bring it back. and i'm going to do that and make sure when you graduate -- when do you graduate? 2014. when you come out in 2014, i presume i'll be president, i'm going to make sure you get a job. thanks, jeremy. yeah, you bet. >> mr. president? >> jeremy, first of all, your future is bright. the fact that you're making an investment in higher education, is critical. not just to you but to the entire nation. the most important thing that we can do is to make sure that we're creating jobs in this country, not just jobs, but good paying jobs, ones that can support a family.

what i want to do is build on the 5 million jobs we created over the last 30 months in the private sector alone. and there are a buchbl of thinc we can do to make sure your future is bright. number one, i want to build manufacturing jobs in this country again. when governor romney said we should let detroit go bankrupt, i said we're going to bet on american workers and the american auto industry and it has come surging back. i want to do that in industries, not just in detroit, but all across the country. that means we change the tax code, so we give incentives to companies across the united states and creating jobs here. it also means that we're helping them to export all around the world to new markets. number two, we have got to make sure that we have the best education system in the world. and the fact that you're going to college is great, but i want everybody to get a great education. we have worked hard to make sure that student loans are available for folks like you, but i also

want to make sure that community colleges are offering slots for workers to get retrained for the jobs that are out there right now and the jobs of the future. number three, we have got to control our own energy, not only oil and natural gas, which we have been investing in, but we also have to make sure we're building the energy source of the future, not just thinking about next year, but ten years from now, 20 years from now, that's why we invest in solar, wind, and biofuels. energy efficient cars. we have got to reduce our deficit, but do it in a balanced way. asking the wealthy to pay more along with cuts so we can invest in education like yours. let's take the money we have been spending on war over the last decade to rebuild america. roads, bridges, schools. we do those things, not only is your future going to be bragt brig bright, but america's future will be bright as well. >> what can you do, we're looking at a situation where 40%

of the unemployed have been unemployed for six months or more. they don't have the two years that jeremy has. what about those long-term unemployed who need a job right now. >> what you're seeing in this country is 22 million people who are struggling to find a job. and they have been out of work for a long, long, long time. the president's policies have been exercised over the last four years and they haven't put americans back to work. we have fewer people working today than we had when the president took office. if the unemployment rate was 7.8% when he took office, it is 7.8% now. but if you calculated that unemployment rate, taking back the people who dropped out of the workforce, it would be 10.7%. we have not made the progress we need to make to put people back to work. that's why i put in a five-point plan that gets america 12 million new jobs in four years, and rising take home pay. it's going to help jeremy get a job when he gets out of school and it's going to help people

across the country who are unemployed right now. one thing the president said that i want to make sure we understand, he said i said we should take detroit bankrupt. i thought we should have the company go through bankruptcy like 7-eleven did and other companies. the president took general motors bankrupt. you took chrysler bankrupt. so when you say that i wanted to take the auto industry bankrupt, you actually did, and i think it's important to know that that was a process that was necessary to get those companies back on their feet, so they could start hiring more people. that was precisely what i recommended and ultimately what happened. >> let me give the president a chance, go ahead. >> candy, what governor romney said just isn't true. he wanted to take them into bankruptcy without providing them any way to stay open. and we would have lost a million jobs. and don't take my word for it,

take the executives at gm and chrysler, some of whom were republicans, may even support governor romney. but they'll tell you his prescription wasn't going to work. governor romney says he has a five-point plan, he doesn't have a five-point plan, he has a one-point plan and that is to make sure that folks at the top play by a different set of rules, that's been his philosophy in the private sector, that's been his philosophy as a governor, and that's been his philosophy as a presidential candidate. you can make a lot of money and pay lower tax rates than somebody who makes a lot less. you can ship jobs overseas and get tax breaks for it. you can invest in a company, bankrupt it, lay off workers and strip away their pensions and you still make money. that's exactly the philosophy that we have seen in place for the last decade. that's what's been squeezing middle class families. and we have fought back for four years to get out of that mess, the last thing we need to do is

to go back to the very same policies that got us there. >> mr. president, the next question is going to be for you here. governor romney, there will be a plenty of chances to go on, but we have all these folks -- i will let you -- >> the answer is way off the mark. >> you certainly will have lots of time here coming up. [ ross ] we are at the bottom of the earth: patagonia, chile.

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want to move you on to something that is sort of connected to cars here and go over -- and we want to get a question from philip trucola. >> your energy secretary has now been on record three times stating it's not policy of his department to help lower gas prices. do you agree with secretary chu that this is not the job of the energy department? >> the most important thing we can do is to make sure we control our own energy. so here's what i have done since i have been president.

we have increased oil production to the highest levels in 16 years. natural gas production is the highest it's been in decades. we have seen increases in coal production. and coal employment. but what i have also said is we can't just produce traditional sources of energy, we have also got to look to the future. that's why we doubled fuel efficiency standards on cars, that means that in the middle of the next decade any car you buy, you're going to end up going twice as far on a gallon of gas. that's why we have doubled clean air production, like wind and solar. and all this has contributed to us lowering our oil levels in

the last 16 years. we continue to open up new areas for drilling. we continue to make it a priority for to us go after natural gas, we have got potentially 600,000 jobs and 100 years worth of energy right beneath our feet with natural gas. we can do it in an environmentally sound way. but we've also got to continue to figure out how we have efficient energy, because ultimately that's how we're going to reduce demand and that's what's going to keep gas prices lower. governor romney says he's got an all of the the above plan. but basically his plan is to let the oil companies write the energy policy. so he's got the oil and gas part. but he doesn't have the clean energy part. and if we are only thinking about tomorrow or the next day and not thinking about ten years from now, we're not going to control our own economic future. because china, germany, they're making these investments and i'm not going to cede those jobs of

the future to those countries. i expect those to be built right here in the united states. that's going to help jeremy get a job and also make sure that you're now paying as much for gas. >> governor romney, on the subject of gas prices. >> let's look at the president's policies as opposed to the rhetoric. because we have had four years of policies having played out and the president is right in terms of the additional oil production. but not on federal land. as a matter of fact oil production is down 10% and gas production is down 9%. why? because the president cut in half the number of licenses and permits on the drilling on federal lands. where did this increased oil come from? a lot of it came from north dakota. there was a criminal action against the people drilling up there for oil, this massive new resource we have. and what did it cost? 20 or 25 birds were killed and they brought out a migratory bird act. i want to make sure we use our oil, our coal, our gas, our

nuclear, our renewables. i believe very much in our renewable capabilities, ethanol, wind, solar, willing an important part of our energy mix. but what we don't need is the president taking advantage of oil, solar and gas. i was in coal country, people grabbed my arms and said, please, save my job. the head of the epa said you can't build a coal plant, you'll virtually -- it is virtually impossible given our regulations. when the president ran for office, he said if you build a coal plant, you can go ahead but you'll go bankrupt. that's not the right course for america, let's take advantage of the energy resources we have as well as the energy sources for the future. if we do that, if we do what i'm planning on doing, which is getting us energy independent. north america energy independence within eight years, you're going to see manufacturing jobs come back because our energy is low cost.

they're already beginning to come back because of our abundant energy. i'll get america and north america energy independent by doing more drilling, more permits and licenses, we're going bring that pipeline in from canada. how in the world the president said no to that pipeline i will never know. this is about bringing good jobs back for the middle class of america and that's what i'm going to do. >> mr. president, let me see if i can move you to the gist of the question. are we looking at the new normal? i can tell you tomorrow morning people will wake up and fill up and find that the price is over $4 a gallon. is it within the purview of the government to bring those prices down, or are we looking at the new normal? >> candy, there's no doubt that world demand has gone up but our production has gone up and we're using our oil very efficiently. and very little of what governor romney said is true. we have opened up public lands, we're actually drilling more on public lands than the previous administration and the previous

president was an oil man. and natural gas isn't just appearing magically, we're encouraging it and working with the industry. and when i hear governor romney say he's a big coal guy, keep in mind, governor, when you were governor of massachusetts, you stood in front of a coal plant and pointed at it and said, this plant kills and took great pride in shutting it down. and now suddenly you're a big champion of coal. so what i have tried to do is be consistent. with respect to something like coal, we made the largest investment in clean coal technology to make sure that even as we're producing more coal, we're producing it cleaner and smarter, same thing with oil and same thing with natural gas, and the proof is, our oil imports is down to the lowest levels in 20 years, oil production is up, natural gas production is up, and most importantly we're also starting to build cars that are more

efficient. and that's creating jobs. that means those cars can be exported because that's jobs around the world and it means it will save money in your pocketbook. that's what we need and that's what we're going to do in the next four years. >> but that's not what have you you done in the last four years. that's the problem. in the last four years you cut permits and licenses on federal land in half. >> that's not true, governor romney. >> so how much did you cut? >> not true. >> how much did you cut them boy? >> we have actually produced more oil. >> how much have you cut on federal lands and federal waters? >> there were a whole bunch of oil companies. >> i had a question, and the question was how much did you cut them by? how much did you cut them by? >> i'm happy to answer the question. here's what happened. you had a whole bunch of oil companies that had leases on public lands, that they weren't using. so what we said was you can't just sit on this for 10, 20, 30 years decide when you want to

drill, when you want to produce, when it is most profitable for you. these are public lands. so if you want to drill on public lands, you use it, or you lose it. >> okay, that -- >> what we did was take away those leases and we're now reletting them so we can make a profit. >> and production on government lands is down. >> no, it isn't. >> production on government land of oil is down 14%. and production -- >> what you're saying is not true. it's just not true. >> it is absolutely true. look, there is no question but the people recognize that we have not produced more oil and gas on federal lands and in federal waters. and coal, coal production is not up. coal jobs are not up. i was just at a coal facility where at some 1200 people lost their jobs. the right course for america is to have a true all of the above policy. i don't think anyone really believes that you're a person who will be pushing for oil and gas and coal. you'll get your chance in a moment. i'm still speaking. >> well -- >> the answer is i don't think people think that's the case -- that wasn't a question, that was a statement.

i don't think the american people believe that. i will fight for oil, coal and natural gas and the proof -- the proof of whether a strategy is working or not, is what the price is that you're paying at the pump. if you're paying less than you paid a year or two ago, why then the strategy is working. but you're paying more than when the president took office. the price of gasoline in nassau county was $1.86 a gallon . now it is 4 bucks a gallon. price of electricity is up. if the president's energy policies are working, you'll see the cost of energy come down. i'll fight to create more energy in this country to get america energy secure and part of that is bringing in a pipeline of oil from canada, taking advantage of the oil and coal we have here, drilling off shore in alaska, drilling offshore in virginia where the people want it, those things will get us the energy we need. >> mr. president, could you address, because we did finally get to gas prices here, could you address what the governor said, which is if your energy policy was working, the price of

gasoline would not be $4 a gallon here. is that true? >> think about what the governor just said. he said when i took office, the price of gasoline was 1.80, $1.86, why is that? because the economy was about to collapse. we were about to go through the great recession since the great depression. it is conceivable that governor romney could bring down gas price because with his policies, we might be back in the same mess. what i want to do is to create an economy that is strong, and at the same time produce energy. and with respect to this pipeline that governor romney keeps talking about. we have built enough pipeline to wrap around the entire earth once. i'm all for pipelines, i'm all for oil production, what i'm not for is us ignoring the other half of the question. on wind energy, when governor

romney says, these are imaginary jobs, when you've got thousands of people right now in iowa, right now in colorado, who are working, creating wind power, with good paying manufacturing jobs, and the republican senator in that -- in iowa is all for it, providing tax breaks to help this work and governor romney says, i'm opposed, i get rid of it. that's not an energy strategy for the future. and we need to win the future. >> i got to move on. the next question is for you. >> i get the next answer. >> the next question is for you, so if you want to continue on. but i don't want to leave all these guys sitting here. >> candy, i don't have a policy of stopping wind jobs in iowa and they're not phantom jobs, i appreciate the wind jobs in iowa and across our country.

i appreciate the jobs in coal and oil and gas. i'm going to make sure -- >> okay, thank you, governor romney. >> -- energy resources will bring back manufacturing to america. we're going to get through a very aggressive energy policy, 3.5 million more jobs in this country. it is critical to our future. when you take a closer look... ...at the best schools in the world... ...you see they all have something very interesting in common. they have teachers... ...with a deeper knowledge of their subjects. as a result, their students achieve at a higher level. let's develop more stars in education. let's invest in our teachers... ...so they can inspire our students. let's solve this.

>> i'm going to move you along to taxes. all these folks have been waiting. governor this question is for you. the next question comes from mary follano. >> hi, mary. >> governor romney, you have stated that if you're elected president, you would plan to reduce the tax rates for all the tax brackets, and that you would work with the congress to eliminate some deductions in order to make up for the loss in revenue. concerning these various deductions, the mortgage deduction, the charitable deductions, the child tax credit, and also the -- what's

that other credit, i forgot. >> you're doing great. >> oh, i remember. the education credits, which are important to me because i have children in college, what would be your position on those things, which are important to the middle class? >> thank you very much. and let me tell you, you're absolutely right about part of that, which is i want to bring the rates down, i want to simplify the tax code, and i want to get middle income taxpayers to have lower taxes. and the reason i want middle income taxpayers to have lower taxes is because middle income taxpayers have been buried over the past four years, you have seen as middle income people in this country incomes come down $4,300 a family. even as gasoline prices have gone up $2,000. health insurance premiums up $2,500. food prices up. utility prices up. the middle class in america have been crushed over the last four years. so i want to give some relief to

middle income families. that's part one. how about deductions because i'm going to bring rates down across the board for everybody, but i'm going to limit the deductions exemptions in credits particularly for people at the high end because i am not going to have people at the high end pay less than they're paying now. the top 5% of taxpayers will continue to pay 60% of the taxes that the nation collects. that will stay the same. middle income people are going to get a tax break. and so in terms of bringing down deductions, one way of doing that would be to say everybody gets, i'll pick a number, $25,000 in deductions and credits. and you can decide which ones to use, your home mortgage interest deduction, charity, child tax credit, so forth. you can use those as part of filling the bucket if you will of deductions. but your rate comes down and the burden also comes down on you for one more reason. and that is every middle income taxpayer no longer will pay any tax on interest, dividends or

capital gains, no tax on your savings. that makes life a lot easier if you're getting interest from a bank, if you're getting a statement from a mutual fund or any other kind of investment you have, you don't have to worry about filing taxes on that because there will be no taxes for anybody making $200,000 a year and less on your interest, dividends and capital gains? buy am i lowering taxes on the middle class? because under the last four years they have been buried and i want to help people in the middle class. and will not, will not under any circumstances reduce the share being paid by the highest income taxpayers and i will not under any circumstances increase taxes on the middle class. the president's spending t president's borrowing will cause this nation to have to raise taxes. higher taxes as a result of the spending and borrowing of this administration. i will not let that happen.

i'll get us on track to a balanced budget and i'm going to reduce the tax burden on middle income families. what's that going to do? it's going to help those families and will help create incentives to start growing jobs again in this country. >> thanks, governor. >> my philosophy on taxes has been simple and that is i want to give middle class families and folks who are striving to get in the middle class some relief. because they have been hit hard, over the last decade. over the last 15, over the last 20 years. so four years ago i stood on a stage just like this one and i said i will cut taxes for middle class families, and that's what i have done, by $3,600, i said i would cut taxes for small businesses who are the drivers and engines of growth. and we have cut them 18 times. and i want to continue those tax cuts for middle class families and for small businesses. but what i have also said is if we're serious about reducing the

deficit, if this is genuinely a moral obligation to the next generation, if we're going to do tough spending cuts, we have got to make sure that the wealthy do a little bit more. so what i said your first $250,000 worth of income, no change. and that means 98% of american families, 97% of small businesses, they will not see a tax increase. i'm ready to sign that bill right now. the only reason it is not happening is because governor romney's allies in congress have held the 98% hostage because they want tax breaks for the top 2%. but what i've also said is for above $250,000, we can go back to the tax rates we had when bill clinton was president, we created 23 million new jobs, that's part of what took us from deficits to surplus, it will be good for our economy and it will be good for job creation. now, governor romney has a

different philosophy. he was on "60 minutes" just two weeks ago, and he was asked, is it fair for somebody like you, making $20 million a year to pay a lower tax rate than a nurse or a bus driver, somebody making $50,000 a year? and he said, yes, i think that's fair. he said, i think that's what grows the economy. i fundamentally disagree with that. i think what grows the economy is when you get that tax credit that we put in place for your kids going to college. i think that grows the economy. i think what grows the economy is when we make sure small businesses are getting a tax credit for hiring veterans who fought for our country that grows our economy. so we just have a different theory and when governor romney stands here, after a year of campaigning, when during a republican primary he stood on stage and said i'm going to give tax cuts, didn't say tax rate cuts, he said tax cuts, to everybody including the top 1%, you should believe him.

because that's been his history. and that's exactly the kind of topdown economics that is not going to work if we want a strong middle class and an economy that is thriving for everybody. >> governor romney, i'm sure you have a reply there. >> you heard what i said about my tax plan, the top 5% will continue to pay 60% as they do today. i'm not looking to cut taxes for wealthy people. i am looking to cut taxes for middle income people. why do i want to bring rates down and at the same time lower exemptions and deductions particularly for people at the high end. because when you bring rates down, it makes it easier for small businesses to keep more of their capital and hire people. for me this is about jobs, i want to get america's economy going again, 54% of americans work in small businesses.

when you brea the rates down, they can keep more money and hire more people. for me, i look at what's happened in the last four years and say this has been a disappointment. we can do better than this. we don't have to settle for 43 months with unemployment above 8%, 23 million americans struggling to find a job there. there's 3.5 million more women in poverty than when the president took office. energy independence for north america in five years. opening up more trade, particularly in latin america, cracking down on china when they cheat, getting us a balanced budget, fixing our training programs for our workers and finally championing small businesses. i want to help small businesses grow and thrive. i know how to make that happen, i have spent my life in the private sector. i know why jobs come and why they go. they're going now because of the policies of this administration. >> governor, let me ask the president about something you

just said. the governor says he's not going to allow the top 5% to get a tax cut. it will all even out, that what he wants to do is give the tax cut to the middle class. settled? >> no, it's not settled. look, the cost of lowering rates for everybody, across the board 20%. along with what he also wants to do in terms of eliminating estate tax, along what we wants to do in terms of corporate changes in the tax code. it costs about $5 trillion. governor romney also wants to spend $2 trillion on additional military programs, even though the military is not asking for them. that's $7 trillion, he also wanting to continue the bush tax cuts for the wealthiest americans, that's another

trillion collar dollars, that's $8 trillion. now what he says is, he's going to make sure that this doesn't add to the deficit and he's going to cut middle class taxes, but when he's asked how are you going to do it, which deductions, which loopholes are you going to close? he can't tell you. the fact that he only has to pay 14% on his taxes when a lot of you are paying much higher. he's already taken that off the board, capital gains are going to continue to be at a low rate, so we're not going to get money that way. we haven't heard from the governor any specifics beyond big bird and eliminating funding for planned parenthood in terms of how he pays for that. now, governor romney was a very successful investor. if somebody came to you, governor, with a plan that said i want to spend $7 trillion to $8 trillion and we're going to pay for it but we can't tell you

until after the election how we're going to do it, you wouldn't have taken such a sketchy deal and neither should you, the american people, because the math doesn't add up. what's at stake here, either candy, this blows up the deficit. because keep in mind, this is just to pay for the additional spending that he's talking about. $7 trillion to $8 trillion that's before we get to the deficit that we already had. and additionally it's got to be paid for by not only closing the loopholes for wealthy individuals, and you're going to be paying for it, you'll lose some deductions and you can't buy this sales pitch that nobody who has looked at it that is serious actually believes it adds up. >> mr. president, let me get the governor in on this, and, governor, before we get into a vast array of who says what -- what study says what, if it shouldn't add up, if somehow when you get in there isn't enough tax revenue coming in, if

somehow the numbers don't add up, would you be willing to look again at a 20% -- >> of course they add up. i was someone who ran businesses for 25 years and balanced the budget. i ran the olympics and balanced the budget. i ran the state of massachusetts as a governor to the extent any governor does and balanced the budget all four years. when we're talking about math th that doesn't add up, how about $5 trillion in deficits. that's math that doesn't add up. we have a president talking about someone's plan in a way that is completely foreign to what my real plan is. and then we have his own record. which is we have four consecutive years where he said when he was running for office, he would cut the deficit in half. instead, he's doubled it. we have gone from $10 trillion of national debt to $16 trillion of national debt.

if the president were re-elected, we would go to almost $20 trillion of national debt, this puts us in a road to greece. i know what it takes to balance budgets. i've done it my entire life. so, for instance, when he says yours is a $5 trillion cut, well, no, it's not because i'm offsetting some of the redukss wi -- reductions with holding down some of the deductions. >> i understand the stakes here, i understand both of you. but i will get run out of town if i don't -- >> i just described to you how precisely i would do it with a single number that people can put -- they can put their deductions and credits -- >> mr. president, we're keeping track, i promise you. . up the ante. and if you stumble, you get back up. up isn't easy, and we ought to know. we're in the business of up. everyday delta flies a quarter of million people while investing billions improving everything from booking to baggage claim. we're raising the bar on flying

and tomorrow we will up it yet again.

and mr. president, the next question is for you so stay standing and it's katherine fenton, who has a question for you. >> in what new ways do you intend to rectify the inequalities in the workplace?

specifically regarding females making only 72% of what their male counterparts earn? >> well, katherine, this is a great question, and, you know, i was raised by a single mom who had to put herself through school while looking after two kids, and she worked hard every day and made a lot of sacrifices to make sure we got everything we needed. my grandmother, she started off as a secretary in a bank, she never got a college education, even though she was smart as a whip. and she worked her way up to become a vice president of the local bank, but she hit the glass ceiling. she trained people who would end up becoming her bosses during the course of her career. she didn't complain. that's not what you did in that generation, and this is one of the reasons why one of the first -- the first bill i signed was something called lilly ledbetter bill.

and named after this amazing woman who had been doing the same job as a man for years, found out that she was getting paid less and the supreme court said she couldn't bring suit because she should have found out about it earlier. she had no way of finding out about it, so we fixed that. and that's an example of the kind of advocacy that we need, because women are increasingly the breadwinners in the family. this is not just a women's issue, this is a family issue. this is a middle class issue and that's why we've got to fight for it. it also means that we've got to make sure that young people like yourself are able to afford a college education, earlier governor romney talked about he wants to make pell grants and other education accessible for young people. well, the truth of the matter is is that that's exactly what we've done. we've expanded pell grants for millions of people including millions of young women all across the country.

we did it by taking $60 billion that was going to banks and lenders as middlemen for the student loan program and we said, let's just cut out the middleman and give the money directly to students and as a consequence we've seen millions of young people be able to afford college and that's going to make sure that young women are going to be able to compete in that marketplace but we've got to enforce the laws which is what we are doing and we've also got to make sure that in every walk of life, we do not tolerate discrimination. that's been one of the hallmarks of my administration. i'm going to continue to push on this issue for the next four years. >> governor romney, pay equity for women. >> thank you, and important topic and one which i learned a great deal about particularly as i was serving as governor of my state, because i had the chance to pull together a cabinet and all the applicants seemed to be men and i went to my staff and i said how come all the people for these jobs are all men of the

they said these are the people with the qualifications. i said, gosh, can't we find some women that are also qualified? and so we took a concerted effort to go out and find women who had backgrounds that could be qualified to become members of our cabinet. i went to a number of women's groups and said, can you help us find folks? they brought us binders full of women. i was proud of the fact after i staffed my cabinet and my senior staff that the university of new york in albany did a survey of all 50 states and concluded that mine had more women in senior leadership positions than any other state in america. now, one of the reasons i was able to get so many good women to be part of that team was because of our recruiting effort but, number two, because i recognized that if you're going to have women in the workforce that sometimes you need to be more flexible. my chief of staff had two kids that were still in school. she said, i can't be here until 7:00 or 8:00 at night. i need to be able to get home at 5:00 so i can be there for

making dinner for my kids and being with them when they get home from school. we said, fine, let's have a flexible schedule to have hours that work for you. we'll have to have employers in the new economy in the economy i'll bring to play that are going to be so anxious to get good workers they'll be anxious to hire women. in the last four years, women have lost 580,000 jobs. that's the net of what's happened in the last four years. we're still down 580,000 jobs. i mentioned 3.5 million women more now in poverty than four years ago. what we can do to help young women and women of all ages is to have a strong economy so strong that employers are looking to find good employees and bringing them into their workforce and adapting to a flexible work schedule that gives women the opportunities that they would otherwise not be able to afford. this is what i've done. it's what i look forward to doing and i know what it takes to make an economy work and i know what a working economy looks like and an economy with

7.8% unemployment is not a real strong economy and an economy that has 23 million people looking for work is not a strong economy and an economy with 50% of kids graduating from college that can't find a job or a college-level job, that's not what we have to have. i'll help women in america get good work by getting a stronger economy and by supporting women in the workforce. >> mr. president, why don't you get in on this quickly, please. >> katherine, i want to point out when governor romney's campaign was asked about the lilly ledbetter bill, whether he supported it, he said i'll get back to you. and that's not the kind of advocacy that women need in any economy. now, there's some other issues that have a bearing on how women succeed in the workplace. for example, their health care. you know, a major difference in this campaign is that governor romney feels comfortable having

politicians in washington decide the health care choices that women are making. i think that's a mistake. in my health care bill, i said insurance companies need to provide contraceptive coverage to everybody who is insured because this is not just a health issue, it's an economic issue for women. it makes a difference. this is money out of that family's pocket. governor romney not only opposed it, he suggested that, in fact, employers should be able to make the decision as to whether or not a woman gets contraception through her insurance coverage. that's not the kind of advocacy that women need. when governor romney says that we should eliminate funding for planned parenthood, there are millions of women all across the country who rely on planned parenthood for not just contraceptive care, they rely on it for mammograms, for cervical cancer screenings, that's a

pocketbook issue for women and families all across the country and it makes a difference in terms of how well and effectively women are able to work. when we talk about child care and the credits that we're providing, that makes a difference in terms of whether they can go out there and earn a living for their family. these are not just women's issues. these are family issues. these are economic issues and one of the things that makes us grow as an economy is when everybody participates and women are getting the same fair deal as men are and i've got two daughters and i want to make sure that they have the same opportunities that anybody's sons have and that's a part of what i'm fighting for as president of the united states.

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... and protect land - by reducing our footprint and respecting wildlife. america's natural gas... domestic, abundant, clean energy to power our lives... that's smarter power today. >> i want to move us along here to susan katz who has a question and, governor, it's for you. >> governor romney, i am an

undecided voter because i'm disappointed with the lack of progress i've seen in the last four years. however, i do attribute much of america's economic and international problems with the failings and missteps of the bush administration. since both you and president bush are republicans, i fear a return to the policies of those years should you win this election. what is the biggest difference between you and george w. bush and how do you differentiate yourself from george w. bush? >> thank you, and i appreciate that question. i just want to make sure that i think i was supposed to get that last answer but i want to point out that i don't believe -- >> i don't think so, candy. i want to make sure our timekeepers are working here. >> the timekeepers are all working and let me tell you that the last part, for the two of you to talk amongst one another

and not in the order you think. go ahead and use this minutes any way you'd like to. the question is on the floor. >> i note that i don't believe that bureaucrats in washington should tell someone whether they can use contraceptives or not and i don't believe employers should tell someone whether they should have contraceptive care or not. every woman in america should have access to contraceptives and the president's statement of my policy is completely and totally wrong. >> governor, that's not true. >> let me come back and answer your question. president bush and i are different people and these are different types and that's why my plan is so different than what he would have done. for instance, we can now by virtue of new technology actually get all the energy we need in north america without having to go to the arabs or the venezuelans or anyone else. that wasn't true in his time. that's why my policy starts with a very robust policy to get all that energy in north america and become energy secure. number two, trade, i'll crack down on china. president bush didn't.

i'm also going to dramatically expand trade in latin america. it's been growing 12% over a long period of time. i want to add more so we'll have more trade. number three, i'm going to get us to a balanced budget. president bush didn't. president obama was right, he said that that was outrageous to have deficits as high as half a trillion dollars under the bush years. he was right. but then he put in place deficits twice that size for every one of his four years and forecast for the next four years is pore deficits almost that large. so that's the next way i'm different than president bush and the last one, championing small business, our party has been focused on big business too long. i came through small business. i understand how hard it is to start a small business. that's why everything i'll do is designed to help small businesses grow and add jobs. i want to keep their taxes down on small business. i want regulators to see their job as encouraging small enterprise, not crushing it and the thing i find most troubling about obama care, well, it's a long list but one of the things

i find most troubling is that when you go out and talk to small businesses and ask what they think about it, they tell you it keeps them from hiring more people. my priority is jobs. i know how to make that happen and president bush had a very different path for a very different time. my path is designed in getting small businesses to grow and hire people. >> thanks, governor. mr. president. >> well, first of all, i think it's important to tell you that we did come in during some tough times. we were losing 800,000 jobs a month when i started, but we have been digging our way out of policies that were misplaced and focused on the top doing very well and middle class folks not doing well. now, we've seen 30 consecutive -- 31 consecutive months of job growth, 5.2 million new jobs created. and the plans that i talked about will create even more.

but when governor romney says that he has very different economic plans, the centerpiece of his economic plan are tax cuts, that's what took us from surplus to deficit. when he talks about getting tough on china, keep in mind that governor romney invested in companies that were pioneers of outsourcing to china. and is currently investing in countries in companies that are building surveillance equipment for china to spy on its own folks. that's -- governor, you're the last person who is going to get tough on china and what we've done when it comes to trade is not only sign three trade deals to open up new markets but we've also set up a task force for trade that goes after anybody who is taking advantage of american workers or businesses and not creating a level playing field. we brought twice as many cases against unfair trade practices

in the previous administration and won every single one that's been decided. when i said that we had to make sure that china was not flooding our domestic market with cheap tires, governor romney said i was being protectionist, that it it wouldn't be helpful to american workers. well, in fact, we saved a thousand jobs and that's the kind of tough trade actions that are required. but the last point i want to make is this, you know, there are some things where governor romney is different from george bush. george bush didn't propose turning medicare into a voucher. george bush embraced comprehensive immigration reform. he didn't call for self-deportation. george bush never suggested 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 and i

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>> i want to move you both along to the next question because it's in the same wheelhouse. you will be able to respond but the president does get this question and i want to call on michael jones. >> mr. president, i voted for you in 2008. what have you done or accomplished to earn my vote in 2012? i'm not that optimistic as i was in 2012. most things i need for everyday living are very expensive. >> well, we've gone through a tough four years, there's no doubt about it. but four years ago, i told the american people and i told you i would cut taxes for middle class families and i did. i told you i'd cut taxes for small businesses, and i have. i said that i'd end the war in iraq and i did.

i said we'd refocus attention on those who actually attacked us on 9/11 and we have gone after al qaeda's leadership like never before and osama bin laden is dead. i said that we would put in place health care reform to make sure that insurance companies can't jerk you around and if you don't have health insurance that you'd have a chance to get affordable insurance and i have. i committed that i would rein in the excesses of wall street and passed the toughest wall street reforms since the 1930s. we've created 5 million jobs, gone from 800,000 jobs a month being lost and we are making progress. we saved an auto industry that was on the brink of collapse. now, does that mean you're not struggling? absolutely not. a lot of us are and that's why the plan that i've put forward for manufacturing and education and reducing our deficit in a sensible way using the savings from ending wars to rebuild america and putting people back to work, making sure that we are

controlling our own energy but not just the energy of today but also the energy of the future, all those things will make a difference so the point is the commitments i've made, i've kept and those that i haven't been able to keep, it's not for lack of trying and we're going to get it done in a second term but you should pay attention to this campaign because governor romney's made some commitments, as well. and i suspect he'll keep those too. when members of the republican congress say we're going to sign a no tax pledge so we don't ask a dime from millionaires and billionaires to reduce our deficit to invest in education and helping kids go to college. he said, me too. when they said we're going to cut planned parenthood funding, he said, me too. when they said we'll repeal obama care, first thing i'll do despite the fact it's the same health care plan he passed in massachusetts and is working well, he said, me too.

that is not the kind of leadership that you need but you should expect that those are promises he's going to keep. >> mr. president, let me -- >> whose promises are going to be more likely to help you in your life make sure your kids can go to college, make sure that you are getting a good paying job, making sure that medicare and social security will be there for you. >> mr. president, thank you. governor? >> i think you know better. 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 the next four years will be much better either. i can tell you if you elect president obama you know what you'll get. you're going to get a repeat of the last four years, we just can't afford four more years like the last four years. he said that by now we'd have unemployment at 5.4%. the difference between where it is and 5.4% is 9 million americans without work.

i wasn't the one that said 5.4%. this was the president's plan. didn't get there. he said he would have by now put forward a plan to reform medicare and social security because he pointed out they're on the road to bankruptcy. he would reform them. he'd get that done. he hasn't even made a proposal on either one. he said in his first year he'd put out an immigration plan that would deal with our immigration challenges, didn't even file it. this is a president who has not been able to do what he said he'd do. he said he'd cut in half the deficit. he hasn't done that either. in fact, he doubled it. he said that by now middle income families would have a reduction in their health insurance premiums by $2,500 a year. it's gone up by $2,500 a year.

and if obama care is passed, or implemented, it's already been passed, if it's implemented fully it'll be another 2500 on top. they're getting crushed under the policies of a president who hasn't understood what it takes to get the economy working again. he keeps saying i created 5 million jobs, that's after losing 5 million jobs. the record is such the unemployment has not been reduced in this country. the unemployment, the number of people who are still looking for work is still 23 million americans. there are more people in poverty, one out of six people in poverty, how about food stamps? when he took office 32 million were on food stamps, today 47 million people are on food stamps. how about the growth of the economy. it's growing more slowly this year than last year. and more slowly last year than the year before. the president wants to do well, i understand. but the policies he's put in place from obama care to dodd frank to tax policies to regulatory policies, these policies combined have not let the economy take off and grow like it could have. you might say you got an example when it worked better? yeah, in the reagan recession where unemployment hit 10.8%,

between that period, the end of that recession and equivalent period of time to today, ronald reagan's recovery created twice as many jobs as this president's recovery. 5 million jobs doesn't even keep up with our population growth. and the only reason the unemployment rate seems a little lower is because of all the people that dropped out of the workforce. the president tried but his policies haven't worked. he's great as a speaker and describing his plans and his vision, that's wonderful except we have a record to look at and that record shows he just hasn't been able to cut the deficit, to put in place reforms for medicare and social security, to preserve them, to get us the rising incomes we need. median income is down $4300 a family and 23 million americans out of work, that's what the election is about.

who can get this middle class in our country a bright and prosperous future and assure our kids the hope and optimism they deserve. >> don't go away. we'll have plenty time to respond. we're aware of the clock but want to bring in a different subject, mr. president, i'll be right back with you. energy is being produced to power our lives. while energy development comes with some risk, north america's natural gas producers are committed to safely and responsibly providing generations of cleaner-burning energy for our country, drilling thousands of feet below fresh water sources within self-contained well systems. and, using state-of-the-art monitoring technologies, rigorous practices help ensure our operations are safe and clean for our communities and the environment. we're america's natural gas. but i'm still stubbed up.

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>> lorena has a question for you about a topic -- >> for governor romney. >> yes and we'll be right with you, mr. president. thanks. >> is it lorena. >> lorraine. >> lorraine? >> yes, lorraine. how you are you doing? >> good, thanks. >> president. what do you plan on doing with immigrants without their green cards that are currently living here as productive members of society? >> thank you, lorraine, did i get that right? good. thank you for your question. and let me step back and tell you what i'd like to do with our immigration policy broadly and include an answer to your question. first of all, this is a nation of immigrants. we welcome people coming to this

country as immigrants. my dad was born in mexico of american parents, ann's dad was born in wales, first generation american. we welcome legal immigrants into the country. i want our legal system to work better. i want it to be streamlined. i want it to be clearer. i don't think you shouldn't have to hire a lawyer to figure out how to get into this country legally. i also think that we should give visas to people, green cards, rather, to people who graduate with skills that we need. people around the world with a credited degrees in science and math, get a green card stapled to their diploma. come to the u.s. of a. we should make sure our legal system works. number two, we'll have to stop illegal immigration. there are 4 million people who are waiting in line to get here legally. those who have come here illegally take their place. i will not grant amnesty to those who came here illegally and put in place an employment verification system and make sure employers who hire people who have come here illegally are sanctioned for doing so. i won't put in place magnets for

people coming here illegally so would not give driver's licenses to those who came here illegally as the president would. the kids of those that came here illegally, those kids i think should have a pathway to become a permanent resident of the united states. and military service, for instance, is one way they would have that kind of pathway to become a permanent resident. now, when the president ran for office, he said that he'd put in place in his first year a piece of legislation, he'd file a bill in his first year that would reform our immigration system. protect legal immigration, stop illegal immigration. he didn't do it. he had a democrat house and democrat senate, super majority in both houses, why did he fail to even promote legislation that would have provided an answer for those that want to come here legally and for those that are here illegally today. that's a question the president will have a chance to answer right now. >> good. i look forward to it. lorena -- lorraine, we are a

nation of immigrants. i mean, we're just a few miles away from ellis island. we all understand what this country has become because talent from all around the world wants to come here. people are willing to take risks. people who want to build on their dreams and make sure their kids have an even bigger dream than they have. but we're also a nation of laws. so what i've said is we need to fix a broken immigration system and i've done everything that i can on my own and sought cooperation from congress to make sure that we fix the system. first thing we did was to streamline the legal immigration system, to reduce the backlog, make it easier, simpler and cheaper for people who are waiting in line, obeying the law to make sure they can come here and contribute to our country and that's good for our economic growth. they'll start new businesses. they'll make things happen to create jobs here in the united states.

number two, we do have to deal with our border so we put more border patrol on than any time in history and the flow of undocumented workers across the border is actually lower than it's been in 40 years. what i've also said is if we're going to go after folks would are here illegally, we should do it smartly and go after folks would are criminals, gang bangers, people who are hurting the community. not after students, not after folks who are here just because they're trying to figure out how to feed their families and that's what we've done. what i've also said is for young people who come here, brought here oftentimes by their parents, have gone to school here, pledged allegiance to the flag, think of this as their country, understand themselves as americans. in every way except having papers then we should make sure we give them a pathway to citizenship. and that's what i've done administratively. now, governor romney just said that, you know, he wants to help

those young people too but during the republican primary he said, i will veto the d.r.e.a.m. act that would allow these young people to have access. his main strategy during the republican primary was to say we're going to encourage self-deportation. making life so miserable on folks that they'll leave. he called the arizona law a model for the nation, part of the arizona law said that law enforcement officers could stop folks because they suspected maybe they looked like they might be undocumented workers. and check their papers. you know what, if my daughter or yours looks to somebody like they're not a citizen, i don't want -- i don't want them -- to empower somebody like that. we can fix the system in a comprehensive way and when governor romney says the challenge is, well, obama didn't

try, that's not true. i sat down with democrats and republicans at the beginning of my term and i said, let's fix this system including senators previously who supported it on the republican side. but it's very hard for republicans in congress to support comprehensive immigration reform if their standard-bearer has said that this is not something i'm interested in supporting. >> let me get the governor in here, mr. president. let's speak to, if you could, governor, the idea of self-deportation. >> no, let me go back and speak to the points that the president made and let's get them correct. i did not say that the arizona law was a model for the nation in that aspect. i said that the e-verify portion of the arizona law which is, which is the portion of the law which says that employers could be able to determine whether someone is here legally or illegally was a model for the nation. that's number one. number two, i asked the president a question.

i think hispanics and immigrants all over the country asked. he was asked on univision. why when you said you'd file legislation in your first year you didn't do it he didn't answer. he doesn't answer that question. he said the standard-bearer wasn't for it. i'm glad you thought i was a standard-bearer four years ago but i wasn't. four years ago, you said in your first year you would file legislation. in his first year, i was just getting -- licking my wounds by having been beaten by john mccain. i was not the standard-bearer. my view is this president should have honored his promise to do as he said. now, let me mention one other thing and that is self-deportation says let people make their own choice. what i was saying we're not going to round up 12 million people undocumented illegals and take them out of the nation. instead, let people make their own choice and if they find that they can't get the benefits here that they want and they can't find the job they want then they'll make a decision to go a place where they have better opportunities. but i'm not in favor of rounding up people and taking them out of this country. i am in favor as the president

has said and i agree with him which is if people committed crimes we got to get them out of this country. let me mention something else the president said a moment ago and didn't get a chance to when he was describing chinese investments and so forth. >> candy, hold on a second. the -- >> mr. president -- >> i'm speaking. >> i'm sorry. >> mr. president -- >> governor romney, i'm -- >> go ahead and finish, governor romney. governor romney, if you could make it short, see all these people, they have been waiting for you. >> i'll just make a point. any investments i have over the last eight years have been managed by a blind trust and i understand they do include investments outside the united states including in chinese companies. mr. president, have you looked at your pension. have you looked at your pension? >> i've got to say -- >> mr. president, have you looked at your pension? >> you know, i don't look at my pension. it's not as big as yours. so it doesn't take as long. [ laughter ] >> let me give you some advice. >> i don't check it that often. >> look at your pension. you have investments in chinese companies and outside the united

states. you also have investments through a -- >> mr. president -- >> we're a little off topic. >> completely off. >> i thought we were talking about immigration. >> we were. >> i want to make sure -- >> if i could have you sit down, governor romney. thank you. >> i want to make sure we do understand something. governor romney says he wasn't referring to arizona as a model for the nation. his top adviser on immigration is the guy who designed the arizona law. the entirety of it, not e-verify, the whole thing. that's his policy. and it's a bad policy. and it won't help us grow. look, when we think about immigration, we have to understand there are folks all around the world who still see america as the land of promise. and they provide us energy and they provide us innovation and they start companies like intel and google and we want to encourage them. now, we've got to make sure that we do it in a smart way and a comprehensive way and we make the legal system better.

but when we make this into a divisive political issue and when we don't have bipartisan support, i can deliver, governor, a whole bunch of democrats to get comprehensive immigration reform done -- >> i'll get it done. the first year. >> we have not seen -- >> mr. president, let me move you on please. >> -- serious about this issue at all and it's time for them to get serious on this.

>> i want you to talk to carrie who wants to switch the topic for us. >> okay, hi, carrie. >> good evening, mr. president. >> i'm sorry, what's your name. >> carey. this question comes from a brain trust at my friends at global telecom supply. we were sitting around talking about libya and we were reading and became aware of reports that

the state department refused extra security for our embassy in benghazi, libya, prior to the attacks that killed four americans. who was it that denied enhanced security and why? >> well, let me first of all talk about our diplomats because they serve all around the world, and do an incredible job in a very dangerous situation. and these aren't just representatives of the united states, they're my representatives. i send them there. oftentimes into harm's way. i know these folks and i know their families. so nobody is more concerned about their safety and security than i am. so as soon as we found out that the benghazi consulate was being overrun i was on the phone with my national security team and i gave three instructions, number one, beef up our security and procedures, not just in libya but in every embassy and consulate in the region. number two, investigate exactly what happened. regardless of where