President Obama heaped praise Wednesday on the U.S. women's gymnastics team after their gold medal win at the London Olympics. He also expressed a degree of wonder at their ability to perform dangerous routines with such artistry.
"These gymnastics folks, I don't understand how they do what they do," Obama said at the beginning of a campaign speech in Ohio. "So I told these young ladies as I was congratulating them, 'How do you not bust your head every time you're on those, that little balance beam?' I couldn't walk across that balance beam."
While traveling to Ohio to deliver a stump speech on the economy, Obama called the five members of the U.S. women's gymnastics team to congratulate them on their gold medal win -- the U.S.'s first since the 1996 Atlanta games.
White House spokesman Jay Carney says the president was "quite impressed" with the team's performance, according to the Associated Press.
"We could not be prouder of them," Obama said, who also noted the Ohio residents competing in the Games. "The wonderful thing about the Olympics is that it reminds us for all our differences, when it comes down to our country we're Americans first and we could not be prouder of them and everything they're doing on our behalf."
Obama went on to attack presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney's tax plan as benefiting the wealthy at the expense of middle-class families -- the latest push by the president to paint a negative shroud over Romney economic philosophy.
