Obama quips on "The View:" I'm just "eye candy"
Barbara Walters, U.S. President Barack Obama, first lady Michelle Obama and Joy Behar pose for a photo on the set of The View on ABC-TV September 24, 2012 in New York City. Obama is in New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly.
/ Getty Images(CBS News) Among the softballs gently tossed at President Obama Monday during his visit with the ladies of "The View," Barbara Walters wanted to know "what would be so terrible if Mitt Romney were elected?"
"Would it be disastrous for the country?" she asked.
It's an issue Mr. Obama has addressed countless times in the 61 campaign rallies and over 200 fundraisers he's done since filing with the Federal Election Commission as a candidate for re-election last year.
"We can survive a lot," the president said of the prospect of a Romney victory. "But the American people don't want to just survive. We want to thrive."
The president said he and Romney have decidedly different visions of how to grow the economy. "We grow faster when the middle class is doing well," he said.
Ever since candidate Bill Clinton donned Blues Brothers sunglasses and played his saxophone on The Arsenio Hall Show in 1992, it's become an increasingly frequent occurrence for presidential incumbents and challengers to appear on TV shows more often home to Hollywood celebrities than political leaders.
"I told folks I'm just supposed to be eye candy here for you guys," Mr. Obama quipped about the fact that he was the only man on the couch with Walters, Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, the First Lady, Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Sherri Shepherd.
He came out on stage bearing a birthday basket of gifts for Walters, who celebrates her 83rd birthday tomorrow, the day the show is to be broadcast.
The basket contained M&Ms with a presidential seal on the box, a deck of Marine One playing cards, some of the White House beer brewed with honey from the hive on the South Lawn and a White House-embossed golf ball. Also among the gifts were some White House napkins, which Mr. Obama joked about bringing "rather than have her steal napkins" from the White House.
On a more serious note, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, the one conservative on the couch, asked the president if his policies are failing the middle class.
Mr. Obama was quick to cite his bailout of the U.S. auto industry, which he said was "back on top." But he revised the question to look "forward" - the word that serves as the motto of his re-election campaign.
He called Gov. Romney "a good man who means well," but said "the policies he's putting forward are precisely the policies that got us into this mess."
"I think the American people are weighing what's going on," said the president. "We all understand that folks are going through tough times out there."
Hasselbeck also asked Mr. Obama about his statement in a town meeting on Thursday that "you can't change Washington from the inside. You can only change it from the outside."
Having defended his assertion since then, Mr. Obama explained that what he meant was that beyond trying to change government from the inside, "you've got to mobilize the American people."
"When ordinary people are engaged and paying attention, that's when Congress responds," he said. "We can't play just an inside game."
He was asked about the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi last week that claimed the lives of four Americans including Ambassador Chris Stevens, and where it was terrorism.
Based on the kind of weapons that were used in the assault, he said "it wasn't just a mob action."
He said an investigation was still underway, but it's clear that there are still a lot of threats "out there" targeting the United States.
"That's why we have to maintain the strongest military in the world, that's why we can't let down our guard when it comes to the intelligence work," he said. The president added that the U.S. must stay on top of al-Qaeda in Pakistan, Afghanistan and related fringe groups.
He said the U.S. would not "shrink back from the world" because of the attack. He vowed to "hunt down" those responsible for the killings. "We will bring them to justice," he said once again.
The taping of his appearance of "The View" came at the start of a 24-hour visit to New York City during which he will deliver his annual address Tuesday morning to the opening session of the United Nations General Assembly. He will also be addressing the Clinton Global Initiative, the organization founded by the 42rd president to combat poverty and promote economic growth.
Mr. Obama was hosting a reception Monday evening for other foreign leaders attending the U.N. gathering, but he had no bilateral meetings scheduled with any other heads of state as is usually the case. Last year, he had 13 such meetings. This year, he returns to Washington on Tuesday afternoon and to the campaign trail on Wednesday.
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If his ego gets any bigger, it won't fit through the door of the WH.
What an egocentric narcisstic little tin dictator with delusions of grandeur.
He's a legend in his own small mind.
But "The View" was easier to remember.
"I wanted to share some thoughts with you tonight. They can provide you with some comfort," he said. "Polls are not elections. The voters have not yet spoken."
No, the voters haven't yet responded to Gov. Romney's spoken thoughts and beliefs:
"There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it. That that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what. And I mean, the president starts off with 48, 49,... he starts off with a huge number. These are people who pay no income tax. Forty-seven percent of Americans pay no income tax. So our message of low taxes doesn't connect. And he'll be out there talking about tax cuts for the rich. I mean that's what they sell every four years. And so my job is not to worry about those people; I'll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives. What I have to do is convince the 5 to 10 percent in the center that are independents that are thoughtful, that look at voting one way or the other depending upon in some cases emotion, whether they like the guy or not, what it looks like."
You know what makes our Country great? It's not the Corporations that come and go. It's not vulture capitalism or monopolies or off-shoring of jobs. It's not the latest craze on Wall Street or the latest fad in the stores.
It's our People. All of us. When we are true to ourselves and true of each other, we all move ahead and prosper.
Democracy is a living, dynamic thing with a heart and a soul and it's not in the Govt. it's inside everyone of us.
That is what our country is. Capitalism is just a vehicle for it, subservient to it.
The times when we place greed above honesty, Corporate tax shelters above people and ideals are the times when we lose as a nation and as who and what we are..the times when we put bigger goals out there for all of us to reach for, together, that raise us all up, are the times we win as a people and as a nation.
Let's not go back to the greedy, reckless times from 2000 through 2008. Let's not forget our promises made to our fellow Americans either and take care of them in their golden years or when they need help. Let's stay the course we are on and grow up and out of the problems we have and build an America we can ALL be proud of.
So much negativity in so many things. Forget about all of it. We all have far more in common than our petty differences. Forget ultimatums and trust in each other and our Nation and we can do anything.
Give a little and get a little. In the end, it doesn't matter how big or how small our Govt is, what matters is how we chose to treat each other as people. We have always chosen the hard road. Respect and kindness. Why should now be any different?
This election is about more than just choosing between one person or the other. A lot more.
Some people are tired of increasing welfare rolls and the spiraling cost of government. Those of us who work for small businesses and are self employed are tired of the mentality of the Chicago teacher's unions, which is emblematic of public employees. The teachers had one of the shortest school days in America, the best pay and benefits and some of the the poorest results. Granted, the social situation in Chicago is a mess. Many kids come from poor, government dependent homes, single never married mothers, and the neighborhoods are riddled with crime, corruption and drugs. It is no cooincidence Chicago has been under extremely corrupt Democrat leadership for decades. Multiple mayors have ended up in jail. Some of us see this model and reject it. It is the model Obama wants for the country.
I'm tired of paying for fat pensions and outsized salaries of government employees who have no accountability. I am tired of unions and freeloaders. I worry that our safety nets are so burdened with those who have no intention or incentive to work that they will fail for our citizens who are truly in need. Since Obama changed the food stamp rules under Obamacare the number of able bodied people on foodstamps has doubled.
Current Federal spending ( not debt ) lowest in 30 years! ( Forbes Magazine )
Lowest Tax rates in 35 years ( google it )
Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act-Equal pay for women
Children's Health Insurance Program
2009 Stimulus bill
President Obama has created the lowest Federal tax rates in 30 years
Ordered kill of Somali Pirates;
Eased restrictions on Cuba;
Serve America Act
Fraud Enforcement Act
Federal funding of stem cell research
Credit Card Act
Matthew Shepard Act
Student Aid Act
Wall Street Reform Act
Rescue of the US automobile industry
Health insurance reform
Timetables for bringing our troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan
Extension of unemployment compensation
An end to discrimination against homosexuals in the military
Assisted in the overthrow of Gaddafi, at no loss of American life
Dismantled Al Qaeda
Fair Sentencing Act
Small Business Jobs Act
Veterans' Benefit Act
2010 Tax & Jobs Compromise
Food Safety Modernization Act
New START Treaty
US Forces Kill Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan
America Invents Act
War in Iraq ended with last American troops crossing border into Kuwait
Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Credit
First President to publicly support the legalization of same sex marriage
Stock market climbed from 8,279.63 1/9/2009 to 13,000
Cash for Clunkers
$ 7,000 tax break for first time home buyers
Froze Federal Wages
Gas Prices down
American Dollar is getting stronger and stronger
Tax breaks for home energy improvements - Insulation & Solar
Created less American oil dependancy in over 40 years