President Obama sat down with anchors from WTVF, WXII, and WESH on Thursday, trying to sell his new jobs bill.
WTVF’s Vicki Yates, WXII’s Cameron Kent, and WESH’s Jim Payne all got seven minutes with the President and, even though each interview had a local focus, Obama’s message appeared to be the same throughout all of them: things are bad but will get better, as long as my jobs bill is passed.
One notable exchange, though, came when Payne wondered whether his children would have the same opportunities as generations past. Obama responded by saying he feels that America has gotten “a little soft.”
Here’s video of Obama’s response…
President Obama told Payne:
The way I think about it is this is a great, great country that had gotten a little soft, and we didn’t have that same competitive edge we needed over the last couple of decades. We need to get back on track. But I still wouldn’t trade our position with any country’s on Earth. We still have the best universities and scientists and best workers in the world. We still have the most dynamic economic system in the world. We need to bring all those things together.
WXII and WESH began airing parts of their interviews on Thursday night, while WTVF has decided to wait until Monday to run their sit-down.
Video of WXII’s interview is available here and WESH has video here and here. (The stations’ video players don’t allow embedding).