Obama: "47 percent" remark suggests Romney hasn't "gotten around a lot"

President Obama participates in a town hall hosted by "Univision" at the University of Miami on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012, in Coral Gables, Fla.

/ AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

(CBS News) Mitt Romney's comment that 47 percent of Americans won't vote for him because they consider themselves "victims" in need of government support suggests he hasn't "gotten around a lot," President Obama said of the GOP nominee Thursday during Univision's "Meet the Candidates" forum in Coral Gables, Fla.

Less than 24 hours since Romney took the "Univision" hot seat, attempting to explain away the secretly recorded remarks and convince voters that his campaign "is about the 100 percent," moderator Jorge Ramos took the opportunity to ask the president during his turn about who he thinks is "the real Mitt Romney." After joining the audience in laughing at the question, Mr. Obama said that inquiry "is better directed to Mr. Romney - but I will say this: When you express an attitude that half the country considers itself victims - that somehow they want to be dependent on government - my thinking is, maybe you haven't gotten around a lot."

Arguing for the American people as "the hardest working people there are," the president said the reason some end up on government assistance is not because "they're not working hard enough, or they don't want to work, or they're being taxed too little, or they just want to loaf around and gather government checks. We've gone through a challenging time. People want a hand up, not a handout.

"Are there people who abuse the system? Yes - both at the bottom and at the top," he continued. "Because there are a whole bunch of millionaires who aren't paying taxes at all, either." On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid suggested Romney was among those who don't pay income tax.

(Watch: Obama on "47 %": Maybe Romney hasn't "gotten around.")

"The day I was elected, that night in Grant Park where I spoke to the country, I said 47 percent of the people didn't vote for me, but I've heard your voices, and I'm gonna work just as hard for you as I will for those who did vote for me.

"That's how you have to operate as a president," Mr. Obama said to lengthy applause. "I truly believe that."

Almost half of the roughly 30-minute program was devoted to immigration reform, as Ramos pressed on Mr. Obama's 2008 campaign promise to pass an immigration reform bill in the first of his presidency. Switching from his usual Spanish to English because "this is very important - I don't want it to get lost in translation," Ramos laid out for the president: "You promised. And a promise is a promise. And with all due respect, you didn't keep that promise."

Laying the blame square at the feet of House Republicans, Mr. Obama said he was "naive" and did not expect that Republicans like Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., "who had previously supported comprehensive immigration reform... and who attended these meetings, suddenly would walk away." He also said the "whole series of emergency actions" his administration had to take on amid a floundering economy "took up a huge amount of time."

(Watch: Obama: I was "naive" on immigration promise.)

Mr. Obama further defended himself against critics who say the White House's move in June to stop deporting young undocumented immigrants who fall under certain criteria of the DREAM Act was merely political.

"If you take a look at polls," he said, "I was winning the Latino vote before we took that action, partly because the other side had completely abandoned their commitment to things like comprehensive immigration reform."

The president also made some bold statements when asked about the botched U.S. gunwalking operation, "Fast and Furious," insisting "almost all" the documents relating to the scandal have been released, and that "the people who did initiate this were held accountable."

Attorney General Eric Holder, mired in controversy over the operation - including a House vote to hold him in contempt of Congress - "has my complete confidence," Mr. Obama said. "He has shown himself to be willing to hold accountable those who took these actions and is passionate about making sure that we're preventing guns from getting into the wrong hands."

Asked toward the end of the forum what the biggest failure of his administration has been, Mr. Obama said with a grin, "Well, Jorge, as you remind me - our biggest failure so far is we haven't gotten comprehensive immigration reform done. So we're going to be continuing to work on that."

[JoseofTexas]

Now if Romney admits he is "completely wrong" about marijuana I will vote for him. I will not
vote for a prohibitionist who vowed to fight "tooth and nail" to deny my right to "Pursuit of Happiness."

[88ew88]

This 47% business is all out of context and Mother Jones admitted their video is missing a couple minutes and Romney has called for the full release to give the context of his comment. Have they done it? No. Has media reported Romney's request? No. It shows the liberal bias in the press. It seems some of you actually believe the press, even though, for example, they only report the polls that show Obama up. Those polls are weighted unrealistically towards Demcrats - above 2008 levels, even. More accurate polls like Rasmussen have Romney up as often as not. And how many anti-Obama headlines have you seen compared to anti-Romney ones? It doesn't say as much about the two men as it does about the bias of those writing about them. Read both sides for balanced coverage because it doesn't exist in one place and both sides leave stuff out. How can you make an informed opinion on any topic if you rely on one point of view? You can't. Thanks for listening.
www.conservativemormonmom.blogspot.com

[nancy_naive]

Mitt Romney and the Art of Negative Campaigning

By August, Mitt's carefully orchestrated negative campaign had convinced those voters who could be convinced to vote against Obama to vote for Romney. Within the last two weeks, he has changed his focus to convincing those voters remaining to vote against Ronmey.

[nancy_naive]

Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well-warmed, and well-fed. -Herman Melville, novelist and poet (1819-1891)

[venusvegasvada]

Yes ladies and gentleman, you cannot have it both ways.

You can't have the GOP gridlocking everything and nothing getting done and then blame the other party for trying.

Point your finger squarely at the GOP. Has anyone ever seen a more sneaky, backstabbing, vague, slimy group of people in their lives?

It would be funny if we had a few more parties to pick from as their patheticness would only become more stark and shockingly evident.

Everyone with a conscious ought to be livid at Romney and the GOP for accusing half the population of the United States of being a bunch of deadbeat freeloaders who take no responsibility for their lives and walk around thinking the Govt. owes them a house, food and health care.

Screw YOU GOP and Romney. Really.

GO $@@# YOUR SELVES

[tsigili]

Not really. It shows he exposed the secret of the Democrats, who don't like having such things exposed!

[Fuego123]

Shame on Obama-straight out lying about what Romney actually said! I see he's listening to the liberal media to get his so called facts! I just can't believe that those words came out of his mouth, verbatum "47% of Americans". Romney actually said 47% of his (Obama's) supporters/the people who voted for him are the people on welfare. Those are the people that he would not be able to convince to vote for him-so he's not going to worry about them. 66 million voted for Obama, 47% = 31 million -there were over 40 million on welfare, just saying.

[John782011]

You need to go back and listen to the tape again as he said 47% would not support him and they were all the people who do not pay income tax. The problem with the statement is that the 47% who won't vote for Romney include many who pay taxes. The 47% who do not pay taxes include young enlisted personnel, the working poor and the elderly, many of whom would vote for a conservative and do not feel like they are the victims Romney said they felt like. Your position is not supported by any news agency nor many in the republican party who are in full scale damage control.

[CaptainSmollett]

Here's one of Obama's recent accomplishments:

Headline: "Data point to slowdown in U.S. manufacturing"
"Data indicates that the U.S. manufacturing sector is headed into a slump. Manufacturing data often are a leading indicator of what will happen with the economy overall." Bloomberg (17 Sep.)

Oops! That means more job losses coming! More irrefutable evidence that the economy is going in the wrong direction under Obama's mismanagement. And you support that????

[retmw1]

But you on the right don't want manufacturing. You are following reagans service economy plan. Offshore all the manufcturing and become a service economy. The thing of it is now you are offshoring service jobs.

[BulBob]

Mitt pulls out his etch-a-sketch and flip-flops more then a BulletBobber. I can't wait for the debates.

[Fuego123]

You have got to start think for yourself.

[Fuego123]

thinking

[Art_V]

I am not sure the problem is with Mr. Romney's travel experiences. More to the point is a line from that old Simon and Garfunkel tune "The Boxer"

"A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest"

Maybe that explains the rest of the the song...

"Lie lie lie, lie lie lie lie....."