Here is the transcript from President Obama’s interview on NBC. Note the red text (he obviously did not have the nuns! They would box our ears if we made grammatical errors like that!)
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Williams interviewed Obama in Iowa
Q: How is it with 13 days to go fighting for your life in 47/47 race?
Obama
18:32:32 i think we always knew was gonna be close race. What we have right now is a lead that we’ve maintained throughout this campaign and we’re just gonna continue to drive message there are two fundamentally different choices in this election about where we take the country
Q: After the excitment of 08, given power of incumbency, you got bin laden, you did not expect to be sitting on a more substantial race than we are as we sit here today?
18:33:01 No, Brian. Listen. You guys have some short memories. Folks in your biz were writing me off a year ago saying there was no way i would win. these things go in ebbs and flows
18:33:17 i’ve always tried to be steady in terms of who i’m fighting for. one of qualities i bring to bear is ppl see what did i say i was gonna do in 2008 and what have i delivered? and they can have confid i say what i mean
Q: This document (jobs plan) you’ve put out struck some as very basic for very late in game. Combined with this trip, it could be viewed as increasing evidence you sure didn’t intend to be in this spot at this point.
18:34:00 Brian, i dont know why you’d say that this is late in the game. This is exactly what i laid out in my convention. Everything in there is what said would do to build up middle class country. Been on website for weeks. I hope ppl take oppty to read it. As folks narrow their focus on election– the more informed voters are and engaged on how big stakes are, better i think we’re gonna do
Q: What’s the dynamic like between you and Mitt Romney?
18:34:49 “You know, I think when you’re candidates, that you– and you haven’t really interacted before– you can’t say that you’ve got a real relationship there.”
Q: So reports, especially just observations, watching the two of you. You don’t appear to like each other very much. you appear to tolerate each other
Obama
18:35:05 oooh. “I don’t think that any relationship between me and Mitt Romney is different from previous presidential campaigns. I mean, John McCain I knew because I had served with him in the Senate, but I think if you look at George Bush and John Kerry or George Bush and Al Gore or first President Bush and Bill Clinton, I don’t think anybody would say that while you were in middle of a campaign that you felt deep affection for the other guy because, look, you are fighting for competing visions.” What i think the american people understand is, this is not about two individuals or political parties. This is about two different visions, about how make sure every single person who willing to work hard is gonna have a shot at better life
