President Barack Obama, who has no business or economic qualifications whatsoever, accused rival Mitt Romney in a CBS interview of being unable to grasp “the economy as a whole.” Success and profit in the private sector, Obama said, were only part of the economy: “[A]s president, my job is to think about the workers,” he said, defining his role in terms peculiar to the world of community organizing and Big Labor.
In the interview, excerpts of which were released by CBS today, the president doubled down on his campaign’s attack on Mitt Romney for “outsourcing” (i.e. offshoring)–a claim that has been exhaustively debunked by fact-checking organizations that are typically partial to Obama and his party. He allowed that Romney “says…he understands the economy and the private sector,” but maintained that “there are questions there that have to be asked” about Romney’s successful business record.
The interview was conducted by Charlie Rose, whose refreshingly candid (but no less shocking) admission on the eve of the 2008 election that we “don’t know anything” about Obama or “the people who are advising him” stands as one of the most enduring indictments of the mainstream media. There was no evidence then (and much evidence to the contrary, now) that Obama knew anything about the economy “as a whole,” or even in part. But Rose–who, to his credit, (gently) challenges Obama’s claims in 2012, does not seem to think it necessary to ask Obama about his own economic qualifications, or indeed his poor performance in office.
The full CBS interview with President Obama will air on Sunday and throughout the next week on CBS News.