KENT, Ohio – President Obama misspoke in a speech at Kent State Univeristy, saying “I want to see us export more jobs,” a line likely to become immediate fodder for his opponent, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. Quickly realizing he made the mistake, Obama corrected himself: “I want to see us export more jobs, export more products – excuse me.”
He also added an immediate jab to Romney and said, “I was channeling my opponent there for a second,” a reference to a common critique by the Obama campaign that Romney outsourced jobs to China while the head of Bain Capital. President Obama was taking his focus on China and Romney’s position with two stops in the key battleground of Ohio, stopping at college campuses in Bowling Green and Kent.
“He’s been talking tough on China. He says he’s going to take the fight to them; he’s going to go after these cheaters. And I’ve got to admit, that message is the better — is better than what he’s actually done about this thing. It sounds better than talking about all the years he spent profiting from companies that sent our jobs to China,” he said earlier. The president in a speech in Columbus in June noted during the election “there will be no shortage of gaffes and controversies that keep both campaigns busy and give the press something to write about.”
This was shortly after a media appearance when he said the private sector was doing “just fine,” which he later had to clarify and become immediate fodder for Romney.
Romney of course has had his own fair share of misspeaking also, when he said “I like to be able to fire people” and in fuller context was saying more about services provided, adding “You know, if someone doesn’t give me a good service that I need, I want to say, ‘I’m going to go get someone else to provide that service to me.”
