they took some time getting out here. in the meantime, the romney people flooded the hall, flooded spin alley back in denver. neil: remember, they got there 15 minutes early. >> reporter: they did. they all got out there fast. i remember asking one of the obama campaign officials, where are your people? where have you been and where is everyone, and this official said, oh, we don't have to get everybody out here, we can stay on message better and all that. well, then we saw what happened in the polls and what happened with governor romney's standing and all this, and so this time around it looks like they're not leaving anything to chance and bringing out a lot more muscle for the postdebate spin. neil: thank you, peter, very much. and next time we go back to peter, i guarantee you that will be wall to wall people. you won't see any of that blue carpeting behind him or myself at this time. we told you how we're going to be gaftering futures market reaction, your own reaction,

some folks already tweeting. why isn't neil running or for president? but i would not be able to do this show. i couldn't govern myself. um, this from pete, he writes i'd like to see you moderate a debate, have no doubt you'd be an awesome job. having been a questioner at a debate with my colleagues in iowa, it was a pleasure, and it is an honor. but both camps have to write off on whoever participates in these thing, and who moderates or facilitates these things. that's how it's done. so one camp might like it, the other camp might not like you, one camp might be predisposed to liking thinner anchors or italian-american anchors, but that's how it's decided. candy crowley is there, and now things are kicking off for a must-win debate for barack obama. >> moderator: good evening from hofstra university in hempstead, new york, i'm candy

crowley from cnn's "state of the union." we are here for the second presidential debate 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 insure questions get answered. 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 here in the hall has agreed to be polite and attentive, no outbursts of any sort. we will set aside that agreemen@ just this once to welcome president barack obama and governor mitt romney. [cheers and applause]

[cheers and applause] >> moderator: gentlemen, thank you both for joining us here tonight. we have a lot of folks who have been waiting all day to talk to you, so i want to get right to it. governor romney, as you know, you won the coin toss, so the first question will go to you, and i want to turn to a first-time voter, jeremy epstein, who has a question for you. >> mr. president, governor romney, as a 20-year-old college student, all i hear from professors, neighbors and others is 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. romney: thank you, jeremy, i appreciate your question, and thank you for being here this country and to all those from nassau county, thanks to hofstra university and candy crowley for organizing and leading this event. thank you, mr. president, also, for being part of this debate. your question is one that's being asked by college kids all over this country. i was in pennsylvania with someone who'd just graduated. this was in philadelphia, and she said i 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. so what we have to do is two things. we have to make 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, four years tuition-free to the college of

your choice in massachusetts, it's a public institution. i want to make sure we keep our pell grant program growing, also our loan program so that 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, and 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 are. i know what it takes to get this economy going. with half of college kids graduating this year without a college -- excuse me, without a job and without a college-level job, that's just unacceptable. and likewise, you've got more and more debt on your back. so more debt and less jobs. i'm going to change that. i know what it takes to create good jobs again. i know what it takes to make sure that you have the kind of opportunity you deserve. and kids across this country are going to recognize we're bringing back an economy. it's 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 them back, and i'm going to make sure when you graduate -- when do you graduate? 2014. when you come out in 2014, i

presume i'm going to be president, i'm going to make sure you get a job. thanks, jeremy, yeah, you bet. >> moderator: mr. president? obama: jeremy, first of all, your future is bright, and the fact that you're making an investment in higher education is critical not just to you, but to the entire nation. now, the most important thing we can do is to make sure we are creating jobs in this country, but not just jobs, good-paying jobs, ones that can support a family. and what i want to do is build on the five million jobs that we've created over the last 30 months in the private sector alone. and there are a bunch of things 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 american auto industry, and it's come surging back. i want to do that in industries not just in detroit, but all across the country. and that means we change our tax

code so we're giving incentives to companies that are investing here in the united states and creating jobs here, it also means we're helping them and small businesses to export all around the world in new markets. number two, we've 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. and we've 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've got to control our own energy. you know, not only oil and natural gas which we've been investing in, but also we've got to make sure we're building the energy sources of the future. not just next year but ten years from now, twenty years from now. that's why we invest in solar and wind and biofuels, energy-efficient cars. we've got to reduce our deficit in a balanced way.

asking the wealthy to pay a little bit more along with cuts so we can invest in education like yours. and let's take the money we've 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 bright, but america's future's going to be bright as well. >> moderator: let me ask you for a more immediate answer, beginning with mr. romney, just quickly. 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? romney: well, what you're seeing in this country is 23 million people struggling to find a job, and a lot of them, as you say, candy, 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.

the unemployment rate was 7.8% when he took office. it's 7.8% now. but if you calculated that rate, taking back the people who dropped out of the work force, it would be 10.7%. we have not made the progress we need to make, that's why i have 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 comes out of school, it's going to help people across the country that are unemployed right now. and one thing the president said which i want to make sure we understand, he said that i said we should take detroit bankrupt, and that's right. my plan was to have the company go through bankruptcy like 7/eleven did, continental airlines, macy's and come out stronger. i know he keeps saying it, well, 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. >> moderator: let me give the president a chance. go ahead. obama: candd, 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. and governor romney says he's got a five-point plan? governor romney doesn't have a five-point plan, he has a one-point plan. and that plan is to make sure 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 governor, 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 give tax breaks for it. you can invest in a company, bankrupt it, lay off the workers, strip away their pensions, and you still make men. money. that's exactly the philosophy that we've 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, and the last thing we need to do is to go back to the very same policies that got us there. >> moderator: mr. president, the next question is going to be for you here and, mr. romney, governor romney, there'll be plenty of chances to go on -- romney: that detroit answer, that detroit answer and the rest of the answer, way off the mark. >> moderator: okay. you certainly will have lots of time here coming up. because i want to move you on to something that's sort of connected to cars here and go over, and we want to get a question from april -- phil dracola.

>> your energy secretary, steven chu, 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 emergency department? obama: the most important thing we can do is to make sure we control our own energy. so here's what i've done since i've 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've also said is we can't just produce traditional sorts of energy, we've also got to look to the future. that's why we doubled fuel efficiency standards on cars. that means 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've doubled clean

energy production like wind and solar and biofuels. and all these things have contributed to us lowering our oil imports to the lowest levels in 16 years. now, i want to build on that. and that means, yes, we still continue to open up new areas for drilling, we continue to make it a priority for us to go after natural gas. we've got potentially 600,000 jobs and 100 years' worth of energy beneath our feet with natural gas. and we can do it in an environmental ri-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. now, governor romney will say he's got an all of the above plan, but basically his plan is to let the oil companies write the energy policies. so he's got the oil and gas part, but he doesn't have the clean energy part. and if we're only thinking about

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 new energy sources to be build right here in the united states. that's going o help jeremy get a job, it's also going to make sure that you're not paying as much for gas. >> moderator: governor, on the subject of gas prices. romney: well, let's look at the president's policies, all right, as opposed to the rhetoric. because we've had four years of policies being played out. and the president's right in terms of the additional oil production, but none of it came on federal land. as a matter of fact, oil production is down 14% this year on federal land, and gas production is down 9%. why? because the president cut in half the number of licenses and permits for drilling on federal lands and in federal waters. so where'd the increase come from? well, a lot of it came from the

bakken range in north dakota. what was his participation there? the administration brought a criminal action against the people drilling up there for oil, this massive new resource we have. and what was the cost? twenty or twenty-five birds were killed, and they brought out the my rah story bird act. i want to make sure we use our coal, oil, gas, nucleares. i believe in our renewable capabilities, ethanol, wind, solar will be an important part of our energy mix, but what we don't need is to have the president keeping us from taking advantage of oil, coil and gas. this has not been mr. oil or mr. gas or mr. coal. talk to the people that are working in those industries. i was in coal country. people grabbed my arms and say, please, save my job. the head of the epa said you can't build a coal plant, it's 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 bankruptcy. that's -- 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 thee3 future, and if we do that, if we do what i'm planning on doing which is getting us energy independent, north america energy independent within eight years, you're going to see manufacturing jobs come back because our energy is low cost. they're alleady beginning to come back because of our abundant energy. i'll get america and north america energy independent, i'll do it by more drilling, more permits and licenses. we're going to 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. >> moderator: mr. president, let me just see if i can move you to the gist of this question which is, are we looking at the new normal? i can tell you that tomorrow morning a lottof people will wake up and fill up and find that the price of gas is over $4

a gaalon. is it within the purview of the government to bring those prices down, or are we looking at the new normal? obama: candy, there's no doubt that world demand's gone up, but our production is going up, and we're using oil more efficiently. and very little of what governor romney just said is true. we've opened up public lands. we're actually drilling more on public lands than in the previous administration, and the previous president was an oil man. @%d natural gas isn't just appearing magically, we're encouraging it. and working with the industry. and wwen i hear governor romney say he's a big coal guy -- and 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 this shutting it down. and now suddenly you're a big champion of coal. so what i've 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, same thing with natural gas. and the proof is our oil imports are 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 the demand around the world. and it also means that it'll save money in your pocketbook. that's the strategy you need, an all of the above strategy, and that's what we're going to do in the next four years. romney: but that's not what you've done in the last four years. that's the problem. obama: sure it is. romney: in the last four years you cut licenses and permits in half. obama: not true, governor romney. romney: how much did you cut 'em by then? obama: governor, we are produced more -- romney: no, no, how much did you increase licenses on federal

lands and waters? obama: here's what we did. romney: no, i had a question -- obama: you want me to answer the question, i'm happy to answer the question. romney: all right, and it is? obama: here's what happened, you had a bunch of oil companies who 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's most profitable for you. these are public lands. so if you want to drill on public lands, you use it or you lose it. romney: okay, now -- obama: so what we did is take away those leases, and we are reletting them so we can make a profit. romney: and production is down. obamawoman -- obama: no, it isn't. it's just not true. romney: it's absolutely true. look, there's no question, but the people recognize we have -- obama: i'll give you your time, go ahead. romney: federal lands and federal waters.

coal production is not up, coal jobs are not up. i was just at a coal facility where 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's going to be pushing for oil and gas and coal. you'll get your chance in a moment, i'm still speaking. and the answer is i don't believe people think that's the case -- that budget 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's 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's working. but you're paying more. when the president took office, the price of gasoline here in nassau county was about $1.86 a gallon. now it's $4 a gallon. the price of electricity is up. if the president's energy policies are working, you're going to see the cost of energy come down. i will 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 offshore in alaska, drilling offshore in virginia where the people want it. those things will get us the energy we need. >> moderator: mr. president, could you address because we did finally get to gas prices here, could you address, um, what the governor said which is if your energy policy was working, the price of gasoline would not be $4 a gallon? is that true? obama: think about what the governor just said. the price of gasoline was $1.80, $1.86? why is that? because the economy was on the verge of collapse. because we were about to go through the worst recession since the great depression. as a consequence of some of the same policies that governor romney's now promoting. so it's conceivable that governor romney could bring down gas prices, because with his policies we might be back in that same mess. [laughter] what i want to do is to create an economy that is strong and at

the same time produce energy. and with respect o this pipeline that governor romney keeps on talking about, we've created, we've built enough pipeline to wrap around the entire earth once. so i'm all for pipelines, i'm all for oil production. what i'm not nor -- for is us ignoring the other half of the equation. so, for example, 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 credits to help this work, and governor romney says i'm opposed. i'd get rid of it. that's not an energy strategy for the future, and we need to win that future, and i intend to win it as president of the united states. >> moderator: i've got to move you. romney: he got the first, he actually got the first question, so i get the last answer on

that. >> moderator: actually, in the follow-up it doesn't quite work like that, but i'm going to give you a chance here -- [laughter] i promise you i'm going to. and the next question is for you so if you want to continue on -- romney: candy, candy, i don't have a policy of stopping wind jobs in iowa, and they're not phantom jobs, they're real jobs. >> moderator: okay. romney: i appreciate wind jobs in iowa and across our country, i appreciate the jobs in coal and oil and gas. i'm going to make sure -- >> moderator: >> moderator: okay. thank you, governor. romney: energy resources, we'll bring back manufacturing to america. we're going to get through a very aggressive energy policy, three-and-a-half million more jobs in this country. it's critical to our future. obama: candy, i'm used to being interrupted, you know? >> moderator: we're going to move you both along to taxes and all these folks that have been waiting. governor, this question is from you. it comes from mary palano. sorry. >> governor romney, you have stated that if you're elected

president, you would plan to reduce the tax rate 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 the, these various deductions, the mortgage deduction, the charitable deductions, the child tax credit and also the, oh, what's that other credit? i forgot. obama: 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 for the middle class? romney: 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've seen as middle income people in this country incomes go 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 income families in america have been crushed over the last four years, so i want to get some relief to middle income families. that's part one. now, how about deductions? because i'm going to bring rates down across the board for everybody, but i'm going to limit deductions and exemptionings and 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 income tax the nation collects. so that'll 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 of deductions and credits, and you can decide which ones to use; your home mortgage interest deduction, charity, child tax credit and so forth, fill in that bucket, if you will, of deductions. but your rate comes down, and the burden comes down 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 investments you have, you don't have to worry about filing taxes on that because there'll be no taxes for anybody making $200,000 a year and less on your interest, dividends and capital gains. why am i lowering taxes on the middle class? because under the last four years they've been buried, and i want to help people in the middle class. and i will not, i will not under any circumstances reduce the share that's being paid by the highest income taxpayers.

and i will not under any circumstances increase taxes on the middle class. the president's spending, the president's borrowing will cause this nation to have to raise taxes on the american people. not just at the high end. a recent study has shown the people in the middle class will see $4,000 a year 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 fam i wills. and -- families. and it's going to help those families and create incentives to start growing jobs again in this country. >> moderator: thanks, governor. romney: thank you. obama: my philosophy on taxes has been simple, and that is i want to give middle class families and folks who are striving to get into 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, actually, it was a town hall,

and i said i would cut taxes for middle class families, and that's what i've done, by $3,600. i said i would cut taxes for small businesses who are the drivers and engines of growth, and we've cut them 18 times. and i want to continue those tax cuts for middle class families and for small businesses. but what i've also said is if we're serious about reducing the deficit, if this is genuinely a moral obligation to the next generation, then in addition to some tough spending cuts, we've also got to make sure that the wealthy do a little bit more. so what i've said is your first $250,000 worth of income, no change. and that means 98% of american families, 97% of small businesses, theyywill not see a tax increase. i'm ready to sign that bill right now. the only reason it's 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. not only that, he said i think that's what grows the economy. well, 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 -- he 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 top-down economics that is not going to work if we want a strong middle class and an economy that's thriving for everybody. >> moderator: governor romney, i'm sure you've got a reply there. [laughter] romney: you're absolutely right. 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. and 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 if you bring rates down, it makes it easier for small business to keep more of their capital and hire people. and for me this is about jobs. i want to get america's economy going again. 54% of america's workers work in businesses that are taxed as individuals. so when you bring those rates down, those small businesses are able to 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 how many months, 43 months with unemployment above 8%? twenty-three million americans struggling to find a good job right now? there are three-and-a-half million more women living in poverty today than when the president took office. we don't have to live like this. we can get this economy going again. my five-point plan does it. energy independence for north america in five years, opening up more trade -- particularly in latin america -- cracking down

on china when they cheat, getting i us to balanced ujt, fixing our training programs for our workers and finally, championing small business. i want to help small businesses grow and thrive. i know how to make that happen. i spent my life in the private sector. i know why jobs come and why they go, and they're going now because of the policies of this administration. >> moderator: governor, let me ask the president something about what you just said. the governor says that he is not going to allow the top 5%, i believe was what he said, to have a tax cut, that it will all even out, that what he wants to do is give that tax cut to the middle class. settled? obama: no, it's not settled. look, the cost of loring rate -- lowering rates for everybody across the board 20% along with what he also wants to do in terms of eliminating the estate tax, along with what he wants to do in terms of corporate changes in the tax code, it costs about

$5 trillion. governor romney then also wants to spend $2 trillion on additional military programs even though the military's not asking for it. that's $7 trillion. he also wants to continue the bush tax cuts for the wealthiest americans. that's another trillion dollars, that's $8 trillion. now, what he says is he's going to make sure that this doesn't add to tte 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, here, i want to spend seven or eight trillion dollars, and we're going to pay for it, but we can't tell you until maybe 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. and what's at stake here is one of two things. 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, seven, eight trillion dollars, that's before we even get to the deficit we already have -- or alternatively, it's got to be paid for not only by closing deductions for wealthy individuals, that'll pay for about 4% reduction in tax rates, you're going to be paying for it.

you'll lose some deductions, and you can't buy the sales pitch. nobody has looked at it that's serious actually believes it adds up. >> moderator: mr. president, let me give the governor in on this and, governor, before we get into a vast array of who says what study says what, if it shouldn't add up, if somehow when you get in there 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% -- romney: well, of course they add up. i was, i was someone who ran businesses for 25 years and balanced the budget. i ran to 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 that doesn't add up, how about $4 trillion of deficits over the last four years, $5 trillion? that's math that doesn't add up. we have, we have a president

talking about someone's plan in a way that's 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've gone from $10 trillion of national debt to $16 trillion of national debt. if the president were reelected, we'd go to almost $20 trillion of national debt. this puts us on 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 reductions, withholding some of the reductions -- obama: candy -- >> moderator: i need to have you both, i understand the stakes here, i understand, both of you, but i will get run out of town if i don't -- [inaudible conversations] romney: i just described to you precisely how i'd do it with a single number people can put,

and they can put their deduction s -- >> moderator: we're keeping track, i promise you. obama: great, looking forward to it. [laughter] >> moderator: katherine fenton has a question for you. >> in what nnw ways do you intend to rectify the inequalities in the workplace? specifically regarding females making only 72% of what their male counterparts earn? obama: well, katherine, that's a great question. and 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 at a 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 the lily ledbetter bill. and it's 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 that that she couldn't bring suit because she should have found out about it earlier when she had no way of finding out about it. so we fixed that. and that's an example of the kind of advocacy 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 i. -- for it. it also means that we've got to

make sure that young people like yourself are able to afford a college education. governor romney talked about he wants to make pell grants and other education accessible for young people. well, the truth of the matter 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, let's 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 crimination. 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. >> moderator: governor romney,

pay equity for women. romney: 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 said how come these are all men, and i said these are the people that have the qualifications, and 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, and they brought us whole binders full of women. i was proud of the fact that 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 leaderships 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 recognize that if you're going to have women in the work force, sometimes you need to be more flexible. my chief of staff, for instance, had two kids who were still in school. she said, i can't be here until 7 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 there when they get home with school. so we said, fine, let's have a flexible schedule so you can have hours work for you. we're going to have to have employers in the new economy i'm going to bring to play that are going to 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 three-and-a-half 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 work force 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. an economy that has 23 million people looking for work is not a strong economy. 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. >> moderator: governor -- romney: i'm going to help women in america get good work by getting a stronger economy and by supporting the work force. >> moderator: mr. president, why don't you get in on this quickly, please. obama: when governor romney's campaign was asked about the lily 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's 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 posed it -- 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, 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 childcare 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. if one of the thing -- 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. that's part of what i'm fighting for as president of the united states. >> moderator: 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 to 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? romney: 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 -- obama: i don't think so, candy. i want to make sure our timekeepers are working here. >> moderator: the timekeepers are all working, and let me tell you that the last part is for the two of you to talk to one another, and -- go ahead and can use this two minutes any way you'd like to. the question is on the floor. romney: i just note that i don't believe bureaucrats in washington should tell someone whether they should use contraceptives or not, and i don't believe employers should. every woman in america should have access to contraceptives, and the president's statement of my policy is completely and totally wrong -- obama: governor, that's not true. romney: let me come back and answer your question. president bush and i are different people, and these are different times. and that's why my five-point plan is to 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, 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 grow withing about 12% per year over a long period of time. i want to administer free trade agreements 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 deficits twice that size for every one of his four years, and his forecast for the next four years is more deficits, almost that large. so that's the next area i'm different than president bush. and then let's take 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 obamacare -- well, a long list, but one of the things i find most troubling is when you go out and talk to small businesses and ask them 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. >> moderator: thanks, governor. mr. president? obama: 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 had 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. and we've seen 30 consecutive -- 31 consecutive months of job growth. and the plans i talked about will create even more. but when governor romney says that he has a very different economic plan, 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 ouusourcing 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's going to get tough on china. and what we've done when it comes to trade is not only sign

free trade deals to open new markets, 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've brought twice as many cases against unfair trade practices than the previous administration, and we've 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 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's 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 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. and i think that's a mistake. that's not how we're going to move our economy forward. >> moderator: i want to move you both along to the next question because it's in the same wheelhouse, so you will be able to respond. the president does get this question. 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 as optimistic as i was in 2012. most things i need for everyday living are very expensive. obama: 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 the place health care reform to make sure that insurance companies can't jerk you and, and if you don't have health insurance, 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 we passed the toughest wall street reforms since the 1930s. we've created five 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 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 cootrolling 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. you know, when members of the republican congress say we're going to sign a no-tax pledge so that we don't ask a dime from millionaires and billionaires to reduce our deficits so we can still 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 he said we're going to repeal obamacare, first thing i'm going to do despite the fact that it's the same health care plan that 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, and the choice of this election is going to be whose promises are going to be more hikely to help you -- likely to help you in your life make sure your kids can go to college, make sure that you can -- >> moderator: mr. president, thank you. governor? romney: 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 that the next four years are going to be much better either. i can tell you that if you're to elect president obama, you know what you're going to 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 nine 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 that 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 obamacare is passed or

implemented -- it's already been passed -- if it's implemented fully, it'll be another $2,500 on top. the middle class is getting crushed you should the policies of a -- under the policies of a president who has not underwhat it takes to get -- understood what it takes to get the economy working again. the entire record is such that 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 people 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 obamacare to dodd-frank to his tax policies to his regulatory

policies, these policies combined have not led this economy -- let this economy take off and grow like it could have. you might say, well, you got an example of one that works 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. five million jobs doesn't even keep up with our population growth. and the only reason the unemployment rate seems a little lower today is because of all the people that have dropped out of the work force. the president has tried, but his policies haven't worked. he's great as a, 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 incomes are down $4,300 a family and 23 million americans out of work. that's what this election is about. it's about who can get the middle class in this country a bright and prosperous future and assure our kids the kind of hope and optimism they deserve. >> moderator: governor, i want to move you along, don't go away, and we'll have plenty of time to respond, we are quite aware of the clock for both of you, but i want to bring in a different subject, mr. president, i'll be right back with you. lorraine has a question for you about a topic we have not -- obama: this is for governor romney. >> moderator: it's for governor romney, and we'll be right with you, mr. president, thanks. romney: is it lorena? >> lorraine. how you doing? what do you plan on doing with residents without their green card that are currently living here as productive members of society. romney: 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 and is a first generation american. 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 have to -- shouldn't have to hire a lawyer to figure out how to get into this country legally. i also think we should give visas to people, green cards, rather, to people who graduate with skills we need, people around the world with accredited degrees in science and math, get a green card stapled to their diploma, come to the u.s. of a. number two, we're going to have to stop illegal immigration. there are four million people who are waiting in line to get here legally. those who have come here illegally take their place, so i will not grant amnesty. i'll put in place an employment

verification system and make sure that employers that 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, for instance, i would not give driver's licenses to those who have come 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 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 i think the president will have a chance to answer right now. obama: 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 even bigger dreams 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 this 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 were waiting in line, obeying the law to make sure that 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 anytime 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 who are here illegally, we should do it smartly and go after folks who 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..3 young people who come here, brought here often times 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, we should make sure that we give them a pathway the 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 dream 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. and 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 to empower somebody like

that. so we can fix this 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 have 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. >> moderator: let me get the governor in here, mr. president. let's speak to if you could, governor, the idea of self-deportation. romney: 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 a portion of the law which says employers could be able to determine whether someone is here legally

or not legally, that 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 nation have asked, he was asked this on univision the other day can. why didn't you file legislation in your first year? 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 licking my wounds from having been beaten by john mccain, all right? i was not the standard bearer. my view is that 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 is 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, if they find that they can't get the benefits here that they want and

they can't find the job they want, 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 that if people have committed crime, we've got to get them out of this country. let me mention something else the president said was a moment ago and i didn't get a chance to when he was describing chinese investments and so forth -- obama: candy, hold on a second. the -- romney: prime minister, i'm still speaking. -- romney: mr. president, i'm still finished. >> moderator: go ahead and finish, governor romney. governor romney, make it short. see all these people? they've been waitinggfor you. romney: 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? obama: i've got to say -- romney: mr. president, have you looked at your pension? obama: you know, it's not as big

as yours, so it doesn't take as long. [laughter] i don't check it that often. romney: let me give you some advice, you also have investments in chinese companies, you also have investments outside the united states. obama: yeah. all right. >> moderator: we're getting way off topic, governor romney. obama: we're a little off topic. i thought we were talking about immigration. romney: i came back to it -- obama: i do want to make sure -- >> moderator: if i could have you sit down, governor romney, thank you. obama: governor romney said he wasn't referring to arizona as a model for the nationn his top adviser on immigration is the guy who designed the arizona law. not e-verify, the whole thing. 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 he 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 that. now, we've got to make sure that we do it in a smart way, in 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 reform done -- romney: i'll get it done. i'll get it done first year. obama: we have not seen republicans be serious about the issue at all, and it's time for them to get serious on it. this used to be a bipartisan issue. >> moderator: don't go away -- obama: i'm here. >> moderator: i want you to talk to carrie latka who has a switch of topic for uu. >> good evening, mr. president. obama: i'm sorry, what's your name? >> it's cary. we were sitting around yesterday

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? obama: 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. often times into harm's way. i know these folks. and i know their families. so nobody's 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 them 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 the facts lead us. to make sure that folks are held accountable and it doesn't happen again. and number three, we are going to find out who did this, and we are going to hunt them down because one of the things that i've said throughout my presidency is when folks mess with americans, we go after them. now, governor romney had a very different response. while we were till -- still dealing with our diplomats being threatened, governor romney put out a press release trying to make political points. and that's not how a commander in chief operates. you don't turn national security into a political issue. certainly not right when it's happening. and people, not everybody agrees with some of the decisions i've made.

but when it comes to national security, i mean what i say. i said i'd end the war in libya -- in iraq, and i did. i said that we'd go after al-qaeda and bin laden, we have. i said we'd transition out of afghanistan and start making sure that afghans are responsible for their own security, that's what i'm doing. and when it comes to this issue, when i say that we are going to find out exactly what happened, everybody will be held accountable, and i am ultimately responsible for what's taking place there because these are my folks, and i'm the one who has to greet those coffins when they come home. you know that i mean what i say. >> moderator: mr. president, i've got to move us along. governor? romney: thank you, cary, for your question. it's an important one, and i think the president just said correctly that the buck does stop at his desk, and he akes responsibility for that, the failure in in providing those

security resources, and those terrible things may happen from time to time. i feel deeply sympathetic for the families who lost loved ones, and today there's a memorial service for one of those who was lost. we think of o their families and care for them deeply. there were other issues associated with this tragedy. um, there were many days that passed before we knew whether this was a spontaneous demonstration or, actually, whether it was a terrorist attack. and there was no demonstration involved, it was a terrorist attack, and it took a long time for that to be told to the american people. whether that was some misleading or instead whether we just didn't know what happened, i think you have to ask yourself why didn't we know five days later when the ambassador to the united nations went on tv to say that this was a demonstration, how could we have not known? but i find more troubling than this that on the day following the assassination of a united states ambassador, the first time that's happened since 1979, when we have four americans killed there when, apparently,

we didn't know what happened that the president the day after that happened flies to las vegas for political fundraiser, then the next day to colorado for another event, another political event. i think these, these actions taken by a president and a leader have symbolic significance. and perhaps even material significance in that you'd hope that during that time we could call in the people who were actually eyewitnesses. we've read their accounts now about what happened, it was very clear this was not a demonstration, this was an attack by terrorists. and this calls into question the president's whole policy in the middle east. look what's happening in syria, in egypt, now in libya. consider the distance between ourselves and israel. the president said that he was going to put daylight between us and israel. we have iran four years closer to a nuclear bomb. syria, syria's not just a tragedy of 30,000 civilians being killed by a military, but also a strategically-significant

player for america. the president's policies throughout the middle east began with an apology tour and pursue a strategy of leading from behind, and this strategy's unraveling before our very eyes. >> moderator: because we're closing in, i want to still get a lot of people in, i want to ask you something, mr. president, then have the governor just quickly, your secretary of state, as i'm sure you know, has said that she takes full responsibility for the attack on a diplomatic mission in benghazi. does the buck stop with your secretary of state as far as what went on here? obama: secretary clinton has done an extraordinary job, but she works for me. i'm the president, and i'm always responsible. and that's why nobody's more interested in finding out exactly what happened than i do. 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 greeting the caskets coming into andrews air force base. and grieving with the families. and the suggestion that anybody in my team whether secretary of state, our u.n. ambassador, anybody on my team would play politics or mislead when we've lost four of our own, governor, so offensive. is offensive. that's not what we do. that's not what i do as president, that's not what i do as demander in chief -- commander in chief. >> moderator: governor, if you want to -- romney: yeah, i certainly do. i think it's 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. obama pom that's what i said.

romney: 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? obama: please proceed, governor. romney: i want to make sure we get that for the record because it took the president 14 days -- obama: get the transcript. >> moderator: he did, in fact, sir -- obama: can you say that a little louder candy? [cheers and applause] >> moderator: he did call it an act of terror. it did as well take two weeks or so for the whole idea of there being a riot out there about this tape to come out, you're correct about that. romney: the administration -- [applause] the administration indicated that this was a reaction to a video and was a spontaneous reaction. >> moderator: it did. romney: 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 your secretary -- obama: candy? romney: excuse me.

the ambassador of the united nations went on the sunday television shows and said -- obama: candy, i'm happy to have a longer conversation about foreign policy -- >> moderator: i want to move you on. obama: okay. i'm happy to do that too. just want to make sure that all these wonderful folks are going to have a chance to get some of their questions answered. >> moderator: mr. president, stand there for a second because i want to introduce yo to nina gonzales who brought up a question that we hear a lot both over the internet and from this crowd. >> president obama, during the democratic national convention in 2008 you stated you wanted to keep ak-47s out of the hands of criminals. what has your administration done or planned to do to limit the availability of assault weapons? obama: we're a nation that believes in the second amendment, and i believe in the second amendment. you know, we've got a long tradition of hunting and

sportsmen and people who want to make sure they can protect themselves. but there have been too many instances during the course of my presidency where i've had to comfort families who have lost somebody, most recently out in aurora. you know, just a couple of weeks ago, actually probably about a month, i saw a mother who i had met at the bedside of her son who had been shot in that theater. and her son had been shot through the head. and we spent some time, and we said a prayer. and remarkably, about two months later this young man and his mom showed up, and he looked unbelievable. good as new. but there were a lot of families who didn't have that good fortune. and whose sons or daughters or husbands didn't survive. so my belief is that, a, we have

to enforce the laws we've already got, make sure that we're keeping guns out of the hands of criminals, those who are mentally ill. we've done a much better job in terms of background checks, but we've got more to do when it comes to enforce bement. but i -- enforcement. but i also share your belief that weapons that were designed for soldiers in war theaters don't belong on our streets. and so what i'm trying to do is to get a broader conversation about how do we reduce the violence generally. part of it is seeing if we can get an assault weapons ban reintroduced, but part of it is also looking at other sources of the violence. because, frankly, in my hooetown of chicago, there's an awful lot of violence. they're not using ak-47s, they're using cheap handguns. so what can we do to intervene to make sure that young peoppe have opportunity, that our schools are working, that if there's violence on the streets

that working with faith groups and law enforcement we can catch it before it gets out of control. and so what i want is a comprehensive strategy. part of it is seeing if we can get automatic weapons that kill folks in amazing numbers out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill, but part of it is also going deeper and seeing if we can get into these communities and making sure we catch violet impulses -- violent impulses before they occur. >> moderator: governor romney, the question is about assault weapons, ak-47s. romney: i'm not in favor of new pieces of legislation on guns and taking guns away or making certain guns illegal. we, of course, don't want to have automatic weapons, and that's already illegal in this country to have automatic weapons. what i believe is we have to do as the president mentioned towards the end of his remarks there which is to make enormous efforts to enforce the gun laws that we have and to change the culture of violence we have. and you ask how are we going to do that, and there are a number

of things. he mentioned good schools, i totally agree. we were able to drive our schools to be number one in the nation in my state, and i believe if we do a better job on education, we'll give people the hope and opportunity they deserve and perhaps less violence from that. but let me mention another thing, and can that is parents -- and that is parents. we need moms and dads helping raise kids. wherever possible the benefit of having two parents in the home, and that's not always possible. a lot of great single moms and dads, tell kids before they have babies, they ought to get married to someone. that's a great idea. because if there's a two-parent family, the prospect of living in poverty goes down dramatically. the opportunities that the child will be able to achieve increase dramatically. so we can make changes in the way our culture works to help bring people away from violence and give them opportunity and bring them into the american system. the greatest failure we've had with regards to gun violence in some respects is what is known as fast and furious. which was a program under this

administration and how it worked exactly i think we don't know precisely, but where thousands of automatic and ak-47-type weapons were given to people that ultimately gave them to druglords. they used those weapons against their own citizens and killed americans with them. and this was, this was a program of the government. for what purpose it was put many but it's one of the great tragedies related to violence in our society which as occurred during this administration which i think the american people would like to understand fully. it's been investigated to a degree, but the administration has carried out executive privilege to prevent all the information from coming out. i'd like to understand who it was that did this, what the idea was behind it, why it led to the violence. thousands of guns going to mexico -- obama: candy? >> moderator: governor, if i could, the question was once about these assault weapons that

were banned and are no longer banned. i know that you signed an assault weapons ban when you were in massachusetts, obviously, with this question you no longer do support that. why is that given the kind of violence that we see sometimes with these mass killings? why is it that you've changed romney: well, candy, actually in my state the pro-gun folks and the anti-gun folks came together and put together a piece of legislation, and it's referred to as an assault weapons ban, but both the pro-gun and anti-gun people came together because it provided opportunities for both that both wanted. there were hunting opportunities, for instance, that hadn't previously been available and so forth. so it was a mutually agreed-upon piece of legislation. that's what we need more of, candy. what we have right now in washington is a place that's gridlocked. >> moderator: so if i could, if you could get people to agree to it, you'd be for it? obama: candy? romney: we haven't had the leadership in washington to work on a bipartisan basis.

i was able to do that in my state. >> moderator: go ahead, mr. president. obama: first of all, i think governor romney was for an assault weapons ban before he was against it. and he said that the reason he changed his mind was in part because he was seeking the endorsement of the national rifle association. so that's on the record. but i think that one area we agree on is the importance of parents and the importance of schools. because i do believe that if our young people have opportunity, then they're less likely to engage in these kind of violent acts. we're not going to eliminate everybody who is mentally disturbed, and we've got to make sure they don't get weapons, but we can make a difference in terms of insuring that every young person in america -- regardless of where they come from, what they look like -- has a chance to succeed. and, candy, we haven't had a chance to talk about education much, but i think it is very important to understand that the reforms we've put in place working with 46 governors around

the country are seeing schools that are some of the ones that are the toughest for kids starting to succeed. we're starting to see gains in math and science. when it comes to community colleges, we are setting up programs including with nassau community college to retrain workers including young people who may have dropped out of school but now are getting another chance. training them for the jobs that exist right now. and, in fact, employers are looking for skilled workers. and so we're matching them up. giving them access to higher education. as i said, we have made sure that millions of young people are able to get an education that they weren't able to get before. >> moderator: mr. president, i have to move you along here. you said you want to -- obama: just one second because this is important. this is part of the choice in this election. now, 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. >> moderator: the question -- mr. president, with guns here, so i need to move us along. obama: i understand. >> moderator: the question was guns -- obama: but this will make a difference on whether we can move this economy forward and reduce our violence. >> moderator: i understand. thank you so much. i want to ask carol goldberg to stand up, because she gets to a question that both these men have been passionate about, it's for governor romney. >> the outsourcing of american jobs overseas has taken a toll on our economy. what plans do you have to put back and keep jobs here in the united states? romney: boy, great question, an important question because you're absolutely right, the place where we've seen manufacturing go has been china. china's mow the largest manufacturer in the world, used to be the united states of america. a lot of good people have lost jobs. a half a million manufacturing jobs have been lost in the last four years. that's total over the last four years. one of the reasons for that is that people think it's more

offshore than to stay here. we have made it less attractive for enterprises to stay here than to go offshore from time to time. what i will do as president is make sure it's more attractive to come to america again. this is the way we're going to create jobs in this country. of -- it's not by trickle-down government saying we're going to take more money from people and hire or more government workers, raise more taxes, put in place more regulations, trickle-down government has never worked here, has never worked anywhere. i want to make america the most attractive place in the world for entrepreneurs, for small business, for big business to invest and grow in america. now, we're going to have to make sure that as we trade with other nations that they play by the rules, and china hasn't. one of the reasons or one of the ways they don't play by the rules is artificially holding down the value of their currency. because if they put their currency down low, that means their prices and their goods are low, and that makes them advantageous in the marketplace.

we lose sales, and manufacturers here in the u.s. making the same products can't compete. china has been a currency manipulator for years and years and years, and the president has a regular opportunity to label them as a currency manipulator but refuses to do so. on day one i will label china a currency manipulator which will allow me as president to be able to put in place, if necessary, tariffs where i believe that they are taking unfair advantage of our manufacturers. so we're going to make sure the people we trade with around the world play by the rules. but let me not just stop there. don't forget what's key to bringing back jobs here is not just finding someone else to punish -- and i'm going to be strict with people who we trade with to make sure they follow the law and play by the rules -- but it's also to make america the most attractive place in the world for businesses of all kinds. that's why i want to bring on the tax rates -- down the tax rates on small employers, big

employers, so they want to be here. canada's tax rate on companies is now 15%. ours is 35%. so if you're starting a business, where would you rather start it? we have to be competitive if we're going the create more jobs here. regulations have quadrupled, the rate of regulations quadrupled under this president. i talk to small businesses across the country, they say we feel like we're under attack from our own government. i want to make sure that regulators see their job as encouraging small business, not crushing it. and there's no question but that obamacare has been an extraordinary deterrent to enterprises of all kinds hiring people. my priority is making sure that we get more people hired. if we have more people hired, if we get back manufacturing jobs, if we get back all kinds of jobs into this country, then you're going to see rising incomes again. the reason incomes are down is because unemployment is so high. i know what it takes to get this to happen, and my plan will do that, and one part of it is to

make sure that we keep china playing by the rules. >> moderator: mr. president, two minutes here because we are then going to go to our last question. obama: okay. we need to create jobs here, and both governor romney and i agree, actually, that we should lower our corporate tax rate. too high. but there's a difference in terms of how we would do it. i want to close loopholes that allow companies to deduct expenses when they move to china, that allow them to profit offshore and not have to get taxed so they have tax advantages offshore. all those changes in our tax code would make a difference. now, governor romney actually wants to expand those tax breaks. one of his big ideas when it comes to corporate tax reform would be to say if you invest overseas, you make profits overseas, you don't have to pay u.s. taxes. but, of course, if you're a small business or a mom and pop business or a big business

starting up here, you've got to pay even the reduced rate governor romney's talking about. 800,000 new jobs, problem is they will be in china. or india. or germany. that is not the way we will create jobs here. we will create jobs is not just change our tax code but also to double our exports. we are on pace to double our exports. one commitment i made when i was president, that is creating tens of thousands of jobs all across the country. that's why we kept on pushing trade deals, but trade deals that makes america work as an american businesses getting a good deal. governor romney talked about china, and i already indicated in the private sector governor romney's company invested in pioneers of outsourcing. that's not my phrase. that's what reporters called it.

as far as currency manipulation, the currencies actually gone up 11% since i've been president because we push them harder. and we've put unprecedented trade pressure on china, that's what exports had significantly increased under my presidency. that will help create jobs here. >> mr. president, we have a really short time for a quick discussion here. i've had all those manufactured in china, one of the major reasons is labor is so much cheaper. how do you convince a great american company to bring that manufacturing back here? romney: the answer is very straightforward. we can compete with anybody in the world as long as the playing field is level. china has been cheating for years. holding down their currency, stealing our intellectual property. there is a counterfeit apple store in china selling counterfeit goods.

we will have to have people play on a fair basis, that's number one. number two, we have to make america the most attractive place for entrepreneurs, for people who want to expand a business, that's what brings jobs in. it's completely false. >> let me go to the president because we are really running out of time, and the question is, we can't get wages like that. obama: there are some jobs that won't come back because their low-wage, low skill jobs. i want high wage, high skill jobs. that is why we want to emphasize manufacturing, that's why we have to invest in advanced manufacturing. that is why we have to make sure we have the best science and research in the world and we talk about deficits, if we are adding to the deficit for tax cuts for folks who don't need them and are cutting investment in research and science creating the next new innovation that

will sell products around the world, we will lose that race. if we are not training engineers to make sure they are equipped in this country, companies won't come here. those investments are what will help make sure we continue to leave this world economy not just next year, but 10 years from now, 50 years from now, 100 years from now. the one governor romney. romney: government does not create jobs. >> moderator: green will have the last question for you. >> hi, governor. i think this is a tough question. each of you, what do you believe is the biggest misperception that the american people have as few as a man and a candidate, use specific examples, can you take this opportunity to debunk that myt and set us straight.

romney: in the midst of a campaign, some campaigns are focused on attacking a person rather than prescribing their own future and think the thingsd like to do. in the course of that the president's campaign is try to characterize me as someone who is different than who i am. i care about 100% of the american people. i want 100% of the american people having 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. i spent my life in the private sector, not in government. i'm a guy who wants to help with the experience i have the american people. my passion probably flows from the fact i believe in god. and i believe we're all children of the same god. i believe we have a responsibility to care for one another. i served as a missionary for my church, served as a pastor in my congregation for about 10 years, saisat across the table from pee who were out of work and worred with them to try and find new

work or help them through tough times. i went to the olympics and they're in trouble to get them on track. and as governor of my state i was able to get 100% of my people insured, all my kids, about 98% of the adult, also able to get them ranked number one in the nation. i understand i can get this country on track again. we don't have to settle for what we are going through, don't have to settle for gasoline at $4, don't have to settle for unemployment at a chronically high level. we don't have to settle for 47 million people on food stamps. we don't have to settle for 50% of kids coming out of college not able to get work. we don't have to settle for 23 million people struggling to find a good job.3 if i become president i will get america working again. i will get us on track for a balanced budget. the president hasn't, i will. i will make sure we reform medicare and social security to preserve them.

the president said he would, he didn't. >> moderator: governor. romney: by the way, i've done these things and shown i can get it done. >> moderator: mr. president, last two minutes belong to you. obama: i think a lot of this campaign may be over the last four years have been devoted to this notion but i think government creates jobs, that somehow is the answer. that's not what i believe. i believe the free enterprise system is the greatest engine of prosperity the world has ever known. i believe in self-reliance. and individual initiative. and risktakers being rewarded. but i also believe everybody should have a fair shot. everybody should do their fair share and everybody should play by the same rules. because that is how the economy has grown. but if we built the world's greatest middle class. and that is part of what is at stake in this election. a fundamentally different vision

of how we move this country forward. i believe governor romney is a good man. love his family, cares about his faith. i also believe what he said behind closed doors 47% of the country consider themselves victims and refuse personal responsibility, think about who he was talking about. folks on social security who have worked all their lives, veteran who sacrifice for this country, students who are out ttere trying to hopefully advance their own dreams of adults in this country streams, soldiers overseas fighting for us right now. people who are working hard every day paying payroll tax, gas tax, but don't make enough income. i want to fight for them. if they succeed, i believe the

country succeeds. when my grrndfather fought world war ii and he came back and he got a g.i. bill and that allowed him to go to college, that wasn't a handout, that was something that advanced the entire country and i want to make sure that the next generation has those same opportunities, that's what i'm asking for your vote in a i'm asking for another four years. >> moderator: president obama, governor romney, thank you for being here tonight. on that note we come to the end of this town hall debate. thanks to the participants for their time and the people of the university for their hospitality. the next debate takes place monday night in florida. don't forget to watch. election day is three weeks from today. don't forget to vote. good night. neil: all right, at the very least you can say the president got off the mat. it is fair to say that this

forum, candy was more involved than many folks thought she would be. what happens in the spin room about 10 minutes, 15 minutes before this even ended. close to two dozen blue signs representing obama operatives, surrogates on behalf of the president came in and took a good 10 minutes later for the red signs representing those surrogates for mitt romney to come in, and now it looks essentially even, perhaps a dozen on each side. what plays out is we have seen at other debates, although at the first debate in denver the president's folks were outnumbered by governor romney folks by about 3:1 margin, now it is about even. this notion that the president

folks seem to think he put in a% better night tonight, and reported himself better than certainly he did two weeks ago in denver. he almost had to. there were many anecdotally on sites, our own, you have been commenting and twitter and others who score it close to even, some say mitt romney, some for the president. regardless of how this falls out, it is fair to say the president had to deliver hits a game tonight started out slowly but as the game ensued did a little bit better. but will that move the needle's and will that change the swing states most decidedly toward governor romney? backing the romney-ryan pickett says wall street increasingly is doing the same. with me now, what do you think? >> this was a great debate, no doubt about it.

it ha have to give the edge to governor romney. he laid out his five-point plan, it was descriptive and precise. the president talked about he has been fighting for the people for the past four years for but he hasn't been fighting enough. we are losing jobs, not creating jobs. the unemployment rate is incorrect. fax don't lie. neil: going after governor romney. talking a good game, a good speaker, but when push comes to shove his record, he talks a good game but the record is we're looking at the same unemployment rate we were, job gains aren't keeping pace even with the population growth. so we are net, net, down, down. what do you think they have to focus on? >> everybody looks at america as a team, and right now the team needs a new coach. that is what the american people are looking for.

any undecided voters who didn't know what direction to take her looking to take romney as their vote, i saw it watching this debate very closely. describing what this president has said and done is clearly evident his plan has not worked at a time for new person to step up and be the coach of america. neil: do you think in that case mitt romney and the families mixing it up with the folks in the audience and those who participated in the debate, that he did not get to knock them out tonight. by many measures you can argue on the facts he was right. i found it unusual for the moderator to interrupt governor romney and essentially misstate history confusing with president obama said, we will avenge acts of terror versus

terrorist acts. the president didn't really clarify this was a terrorist act in the deal for a good couple of weeks. that was unusual. i didn't see her rushing to governor romney's defense on any issue. >> this president has a home-field advantage, and major democratic stronghold. neil: decouple those people who call themselves undecided vote voters, they didn't sound that way to me. where does this set things up going to the next week or the next debate? >> i think there are a lot of high expectations, but any undecided voter who watched the debates tonighdebate tonight anh the last debate is going to understand the last four years have been extreme a tough, gas prices very high, on employment numbers horrible.

neil: what did you think about the president saying we were in the midst of a recession? >> he has to say something, coming up with a rebuttal. it is terrible, that is not what america needs right now. we need entrepreneurs to go out and take the risk to take america to where it is today. neil: thank you very much. all right, i do want, get a grander shot of this room to see what is going on. this has become kind of like a convention after debate, each side spending the case for their guy. the blue for barack obama, that he did very well, the red representing romney's surrogates so their guy did very well.

this is hard to read in the significance of this. from denver the side 3:1 red versus blue. we are told at the time the obama folks did not have their acts together. also told cynically from some that didn't want to show their faces after what was a dismal performance on the part of the president, even the president said as much. whatever the case, they got their picture right here because almost 20 minutes i am told before this debate was even ov over, they came out en masse, the obama group with their science and then it was like march of the wooden soldiers, out came the romney forces but a good 10 or 15 minutes later like the opening ceremony of the olympics. i don't know who represents long island, but maybe they had their own sign.

we have governor of virginia here right now, first off, how do you think it went? >> with a different style, the physical profundity to one another, a little more intense exchange, the president clearly a little more aggressive but governor romney also -- also -- neil: it didn't start out that way. he really got on his game. and by the end it was almost a slugfest. who does that help or hurt when you get that in your face? >> with the incredible momentum governor romney had out of denver even if it is a tie tonight it goes to romney. neil: if you think it is a tie tonight? >> i give a slight edge to romney. i will take that tonight. on two very important points. one, did not hear any compelling case for a second obama term. he said it's something he wanted

to do and didn't get done. expanding government, cracking down on wall street. but i'm many things governor romney pointed out some failures. what will the second term look like putting people back to work and getting us out of debt? i heard rhetoric but did not hear any good plans. and really compelling tonight was the importance of foreign policy. two weeks after the benghazi incident the president in the wells of the united nations saying it attack on a youtube video. now taking responsibility today for weeks later that they were not properly prepared. neil: what did you think for the moderator to correct governor romney to say the president did call this an act of terror when he was referring to this fact of terror against the united stat united states, meant he was calling it a terrorist act. it is a very important distinction and with a moderator to hop on and correct the

governor when she made no such effort, i thought that was a little weird. >> i like candy crowley, but she wrong on that. neil: i know this seems silly for me to keep pounding them about: something a terror act is very different than calling it a terrorist act. and the moderator intervening to defend the president as if he know. i like candy a lot, but -- she'>> she's good, but she was g on that. why did we even have had a request from tim ghazi on 9/11, why wasn't the president more prepared when we had come out of the conflict in the beer? with the trillion dollars in defense cuts the president refuses to do anything about while we are fighting a war in

afghanistan costing 200,000 jobs in virginia and failed to support 125,000 men and women from virginia fighting in the military right now, this is absolutely the wrong policy and i think the projection of not defending the press secretary right now, it is projecting weakness in the middle east and invites this kind of response, neil. neil: early survey results we are getting. stick around. 0t[h7

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neil: welcome back, everybody. it looks as though the president

bounced off the mat but did he perform strongly enough to win this thing or at least change the map? we do not least from early reads from you folks, he might have done better. but it wasn't enough to turn things around. this is a survey among you responding. far from scientific, just a knee-jerk reaction i've seen responses all over the map. among you folks, saying romney won. that is probably not the most scientific engagement for coming in on a survey where you tell us what you think and we will see how that fares. in the middle of all of this peter barnes, this was the great sense for each side gets to sell. >> i'm here with the governor of massachusetts given reaction to this.

governor patrick, we're live on fox business right now, thank you for joining us. president obama who was here tonight, where did that guy go? >> he has been governing for the past four years. he dominated the debates tonight, showed us he believes in growth and he has a strategy for growth which involves investing in education and innovation in infrastructure, a winning strategy. he talked about a strategy for reducing the deficit that enabled in a balanced way enabled those kind of investment and i think governor romney was exposed as not having a plan for growth. he has a lot of ideas but i don't add up to a growth strategy. >> on the politics of this you know you have been looking at the polling data yourself, i am sure. is it too late to make a difference? was governor romney giving a lot of momentum going into the last three weeks has the president reacted in time? >> he ma they may be acting theg

guy don't pay much attention to them, the polls that matter the most are on november 6. the american people are watching very closely and they have been for a long time. >> have a lot of people made up their minds? >> i do think so, but at the same time the american people have been a wash in ads, charges and counter charges and to have an opportunity to see the candidates in a more spontaneously responding directly to voters i think is a very powerful thing and i think the president dominated night. >> there was a lot of attacks, sometimes ordering on anger, bitterness, doesn't that turn voters off and perhaps potentially both candidates risk that? >> i do think it is important for the president not to let the misrepresentations of governor romney go unanswered, and tonight he didn't. >> thank you for joining us live on fox business, back to you.

neil: i am very jealous and you had much longer interview than i enjoyed when i was at the democratic convention. while that is reading for demographidemocratic governor. one of the things noticing that the debate room, they're still in there. governor romney, his wife, the president and his wife, they are not leaving. they're like me if i'm a guest at your party, i am ordering pay-per-view and rating your refrigerator. they will probably go ahead and have another debate momentarily. only feet apart from one another. the leader of the free world at the very least was more just and more into it than he was two weeks ago in denver. that might have been enough to eat some concerns fallen flat on his face during the democratic supporters, the question is did it move the needle?

according to you, governor romney also put in a good debate. on the energy base, the back-and-forth that almost put into looking like they came to blows. wilbur ross on what you make of that and whose message is right after this. i'm a conservative investor.

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