"If you want to be president, you gotta work for everybody, not just for some."

Last night, President Obama appeared on the Letterman show (oy) and was asked about Mitt Romney's 47% comment. His response is below. As we have come to expect from President Obama, it was eloquent and measured and eminently reasonable. This morning, The Today Show classified it as a "jab" at Mitt Romney. Sigh.

[video removed]

When I won in 2008, 47% of the American people voted for John McCain. They didn't vote for me. And what I said on election night was: Even though you didn't vote for me, I hear your voices, and I'm gonna work as hard as I can to be your president. And one of the things I've learned as president is: You represent the entire country. And when I meet Republicans as I'm traveling around the country, you know, they are hard-working family people, who care deeply about this country, and my expectation is that, if you want to be president, you gotta work for everybody, not just for some.

[edit]

You don't meet anybody who doesn't believe in the American Dream and the fact that nobody is entitled to success, that you've gotta work hard, and so I promise you, there are not a lotta people out there who think they're victims; there are not a lotta people who think they're entitled to something. What I think the majority of people, Democrats and Republicans, believe is that we've got some obligations to each other and there's nothing wrong with us giving each other a helping hand, so if there's a—that single mom's kid, even after all the work she's done, still can't afford to go to college, for us to be able to give them, you know, some help on a student loan so they can end up being, ahh, curing the next disease or making sure that they're starting the next Google, I think that's a good investment for America.