Senior Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod on Monday sought to downplay a recent comment from the president that the private sector was “doing fine,” saying voters knew Republicans were using the remark out of context.
“In the minds of most Americans there’s no confusion about this,” said Axelrod on CBS's "This Morning.”
Axelrod said the controversy over the remark, which Obama quickly walked back on Friday, would be forgotten before voters cast their ballots in November.
“This is the kind of thing we do in campaigns. Your community, my community, we get all excited about it; the question is what it means. Is there transcendent meaning to it in November when people will be making judgments on it? No, they will be making judgments on what the president has done,” he added.
“The private sector is doing fine,” Obama said Friday to reporters. “Where we’re seeing weaknesses in our economy have to do with state and local government.”
While the president quickly corrected the statement, Republicans have jumped on the comment to paint him as out of touch, with the Romney campaign releasing a video titled “Fine?” over the weekend, which spotlights stories from struggling workers along with Obama’s remark.
Axelrod on Monday also hit at presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney for opposing a proposal to help states retain public-sector workers, including teachers, firefighters and police officers.
“Gov. Romney’s reaction to that was we don’t need any more teachers,” said Axelrod.
“We lost 250,000 new teachers in the last 27 months as we were gaining these private-sector jobs,” he said. “Does anybody really believe we don’t need more teachers that we can keep whacking teachers and that we’re going to advance as a country? That’s a serious debate, one that’s worth having. “
At a campaign stop Friday, Romney signaled his opposition to a plan that would provide federal funds for state public worker programs.
Obama says “we need more firemen, more policemen, more teachers,” Romney said. “Did he not get the message in Wisconsin? The American people did. It's time for us to cut back on government.”
Obama’s campaign released a video Saturday saying that "Romney economics" would lead to fewer teachers, firefighters and police officers.
Axelrod said voters would back Obama’s economic plans over Romney’s come November.
“The president believes we need to bring down these deficits while we invest in the things that will make our economy grow: education, research and development and innovation, energy, the kind of things that will help the middle class,” he said.
“Gov. Romney wants to go back to doing what we did before, very large budget-busting tax cuts for the wealthy, deregulating Wall Street.
“We’ve seen this movie before, we’ve seen how it ends. It’s not a plan for the future, it’s an echo of a failed past,” said Axelrod.
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