NAME: GRE MEDALS 260704N TAPE: EF04/0753 IN_TIME: 10:47:32:12 DURATION: 00:02:44:01 SOURCES: APTN DATELINE: Athens, 26 July 2004 RESTRICTIONS: SHOTLIST 1. Wide shot Efsimon factory 2. Mid shot of machines 3. Nikos Konstantopoulos, president of Efsimon collections (company making the medals), holds medals 4. Close up of medals 5. SOUNDBITE (Greek) Nikos Konstantopoulos, president of Efsimon collections: "We are in the area where the Olympic medals are cut. The medals have been designed and here is where the processes of making the moulds and casts and everything else that is needed takes place, and after that they are cut into gold, silver and bronze." 6. Wide shot of cast moulds of Olympic and Paralympic medal designs under digital camera 7. Close up of cast for Olympic medal 8. Close up of cast for Paralympic medal 9. Worker manipulating Olympic medal design on computer screen 10. Close up of work done on medals on computer 11. Worker puts sheet of silver into cutter 12. Silver pieces cut from sheet being collected in front of machine 13. Workers stand near machine that stamps design onto medal 14. Close up of worker's hand putting piece of silver into machine; medal being stamped 15. Stamped silver Olympic medals on velvet sheet 16. Close up of silver medal 17. Sheet of unstamped bronze medals; one stamped on top right corner 18. Close up of bronze Paralympic medal 19. SOUNDBITE (Greek) Nikos Konstantopoulos, president of Efsimon collections: "The medals that will be made will be 1,000 gold, 1,000 silver and 1,000 bronze for the Olympic Games and an equal amount for the Paralympic Games." 20. Wide shot workers polishing medals 21. Close up of medal being polished 22. Worker inspects medals 23. Wide shot bronze, gold and silver medals 24. Close up gold medal 25. Close up silver medal 26. Close up bronze medal STORYLINE The factory that produces medals for this summer's Olympic winners opened its doors to the press on Monday. Fifteen craftsmen will mint the 3,000 medals that will be awarded during the Athens Olympics in August, using 13 kilos (28.6 pounds) of gold, a ton of silver and a ton of bronze. In all, the factory will churn out 986 gold, 986 silver and 1,150 bronze medals. For the first time since 1928, the Olympic medals will have a Greek design to celebrate the homecoming of the games to their ancient birthplace. One side of the Olympic medal will feature the Ancient Olympia museum statue of the Winged Victory (Nike) of Peonios at the Panathenaic Stadium, the site of the first modern Olympics in 1896 and the end point of the 2004 marathon race. The other side will have the Olympic flame against an extract of Pindar's "Eighth Olympic Ode." The phrase "28th Olympiad Athens 2004" is written in Greek. Until now, Olympic medals since the 1928 Amsterdam Games carried a design of a generic stadium that resembled Rome's Colosseum. The Paralympic medal features the Acropolis. Thirteen kilos (28.6 pounds) of gold will be used to plate 986 first-place medals; a ton of silver for 986 second-place finishers and another ton of copper for the 1,150 bronze prizes. The first-place medals will be gold-plated in Switzerland.

YESTERDAY'S NEWSREELS

YESTERDAY'S NEWSREELS

CAMPAIGN 2012 / REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE MITT ROMNEY TOWN HALL EVENT IN CONWAY NEW HAMPSHIRE / COMPLETE TOWN HALL 18:14:20: BROLL CROWD RISES AND BEGINS TO APPLAUD, ROMNEY ENTERS, WIDE SHOT FROM REAR OF CROWD WITH ROMNEY AT A DISTANCE 18:14:38: BROLL CROWD SITS DOWN - MITT AND ANN GLAD HAND, SHAKE HANDS WITH SUPPORTERS, INTRODUCED... 18:15:22: Romney: "thank you Tom, thank you. (APPLAUSE) "You're very kind, I appreciate that endorsement (REFERNCING THE INTRODUCER'S ENDORSEMENT AT 18:14:40)." 18:15:28: Romney: "This has been a very important day for us to go across the North Country and see a lot of friends and I'm appreciative of being able to be with you here tonight. I know that you get to ask some questions, I look forward to that and uh, but I'm really looking forward to hearing this young lady in the red blazer say 'hi'. This is a, I call her a young lady, some of you may disagree with me but I consider her a young lady. When she was fifteen and a sophomore in high school, are you a sophomore? (INDICATES OFF-CAMERA) A freshman, okay. Just a little older, one year older - watch out, yeah. When she was fifteen and a sophomore I was a senior, she was almost on her sixteenth birthday and I went to a party at Stu White's house, it was in the downstairs of their house. And I happened to see her, across the room, I'd known her before, we'd bumped into each other, but I really was attracted to what I saw. So I went over and chatted with her a bit and then I found she had come with someone else. And I said 'look I live closer to Ann than you do - can I give her a ride home for you?' and he said 'sure' and I gave her a ride home and we've been going steady pretty much ever since. So let me introduce my sweetheart, Ann Romney. (APPLAUSE) 18:16:37: (ANN ROMNEY TAKES MICROPHONE): "Hi" (MITT WALKS OFF-CAMERA) "There's some folks in this room I know, it's wonderful it's good to see you all, there's some friendly faces here, it's great to be here in North Conway. We've had a great day here in New Hampshire and yesterday too was a great day on the bus, it's wonderful to be on the trail and be out and meet the real voters. It's great to be able to do this and you guys are important and I think its 19 days from now you can help pick the next President of the United States, and I'm here to recommend him to you as well, I think some of you will agree with me on that one." (APPLAUSE) 18:17:20: Ann Romney: "I know we all love this country, we're worried about it, we're worried about the directions its going and um we want someone to go in there and fix it." ***"And I was just talking to Mitt on the bus and I'm like 'now I'm really serious about this, I want you to really fix it (LAUGHS) We're not going through all this for nothing, you have to go in and fix it'."*** "I really feel as though he can and I feel good about that. I feel that he has got the skill and the capabilities to do that." 18:17:50: "He did mention that we've known each other a long time, and we certainly have. There's also someone else here - there he is - I'm looking right at him, our oldest son (INDICATES OFF-CAMERA) is here Tagg (APPLAUSE). So he is the father of 4 beautiful children and his daughter is our oldest grandchild, we have 16 of them and his daughter, our oldest grandchild is 16, so we are um, pleased to - "and I will tell you Tagg that I tell you on occasion - 'being a grandparent is really a great thing and it would be great if you could skip having the children part (LAUGHTER) and just go straight to the grandchildren.' (ANN LAUGHS) Maybe I shouldn't tell that story with him in the room."*** ***"They're a great joy as you can imagine and they're much more of a joy as adults than when they were small."*** "And for that, when they were difficult, and Tagg will remember, that they were difficult and there were five of them so they really outnumbered me, that Mitt was great during that time. Because when Mitt would be travelling, he would call home and hear a very exasperated wife on the phone and hear all this noise and commotion going on in the background and he'd say 'hang in there - I'll be home soon' but he would always say something wonderful which is 'remember Ann what you're doing is more important than what I'm doing' and the neat thing about it is that he really meant it. And he gave me such a sense of importance as a mother and a feeling of partnership too that we were in this together. So I appreciate that, I appreciate all that he's been for me and in my life, in my hardest hour, when I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, and for him to be able to be by my side and help me through my darkest hour I will ever be grateful for." 18:19:44: "So you've seen him and have known him as a Governor next door, I've seen that too. I've seen him heading the Olympics and turning that around, I've always seen him in private enterprise and how responsible he was to those investors and people that counted on him, so I've seen him wear a lot of different hats and I'm very excited to see him wear the next one which is President of the United States." (APPLAUSE) "Where are you?" (ANN HANDS MIC TO MITT, SITS DOWN) 18:20:13: Mitt Romney: "Thank you. Uh, let's see - she gave me a tip there, where's the Governor Sununu (sp?) Come here Governor, we have your former Governor and a great friend of New Hampshire, I can't resist having him come up and say a few words or two. The great, the incomparable - this guy, he's just one of the best - Governor -" 18:20:39: (HANDS MIC TO FORMER GOVERNOR OF NH): "Thank you, Governor. I am partial to Governors, we know how important they are. but we also know that they learn a lot by being Governor and what this country really needs is a former Governor as the next President and that's one of the biggest reasons why I have committed myself to make sure that my dear friend, Mitt Romney, is the next President of the United States." "Now, we've been going around the state - we have 19 days to the Primary. Short period of time. One of the nice things about living in New Hampshire is we help make the decision. It's us, it's up to us, right? So not only do we accept the responsibility of going and listening to the candidates so we can choose, we take the responsibility of casting our ballot, but we also understand how important it is to be part of the communication process. So between now and January 10 - the next 19 days - I'm going to ask each one of you to accept a very small responsibility, find two people, just two, not ten, not eight, not six, not four, two - that you can talk into voting and going with you in the Primary for Mitt Romney to be the next President of the United States." 18:22:12: "If you do that, I promise you, if each of you do that in here, I promise you, President Obama will end up being a one-term President and you will have spent the evening with the next President of the United States. (MITT LAUGHS, AUDIENCE APPLAUSE) "So now I turn it back to you" (THEY SHAKE HANDS, MITT TAKES BACK MIC) 18:22:34: Mitt Romney: "That's quite an assignment and quite an endorsement. I appreciate that Governor and another endorsement that I saw today, the Conway Daily Sun endorsed my Presidency (APPLAUSE) and that was unexpected but generously received. I appreciate their help, excellent. ***"And another endorsement today - President George Herbert Walker Bush said he supported me today (APPLAUSE). And he didn't use the word endorsement, he used the word support, and he's supporting my effort and I appreciate that actually, more on a personal basis perhaps than even on a political basis, I respect him enormously as an American hero for his service in the World War but also as an American patriot and an extraordinary world leader."*** 18:23:23: "Ann said we were in North Conway, and we're in Conway aren't we - yeah ahh we're in Conway - don't blame me, don't blame me! I asked Tom, it does remind me, we have a family history in this regard because my Dad, when he was a newly elected Governor in Michigan, on the fourth of July went to Mount Pleasant, Michigan and spoke at their fourth of July celebration and he stood up and said 'it sure is great being here in Mt. Clemens' - which is another Michigan town and the audience stood back and said 'ohhh' this audience, and my mother, recognizing the problem said George 'it's pleasant, pleasant!' and he said 'yes it sure is pleasant in Mt. Clemens' (LAUGHTER FROM AUDIENCE) 18:24:16: "But I didn't try and correct Ann, until I got up here. (MITT LAUGHS) "I appreciate your willingness to spend a little time with us this evening. I really do care for this country, we've had the fun of driving through the North Country today and I got the chance to look out the windows as we drove past the White Mountains and saw the beauty of this land. I love the country and learned to love America from my parents. From my mom and dad." "When I was about this age (INDICATES CHILD OFF-CAMERA) they put us in the car and drove us against the West of the Country and we got to look at the National Parks and we saw the mountains and the canyons and ultimately, the ocean, the sequoias, they wanted us to fall in love with America and I did. I was riding in a Rambler (point to audience member off-camera) Exactly, you've heard me say this before - yeah, we had a Rambler! My Dad made Ramblers! For all you younger people, anyone under about 45 or 50, you don't know what a Rambler is- a Rambler was an automobile that my family enjoyed. It's claim to fame was the front seat you could put a lever on it and it would flatten down so you could make a bed out of the whole inside of the car, which made it handy on these long trips. And so we could get a nap on one side of the car." "But while we were going from park to park my Mom would read to us from a book and my Dad would tell us stories about the founding of the country. And they described the characteristics of the country, and described the way we are. And I learned America had made an interesting choice at the time Founders crafted this country." 18:25:43: "One they gave us political freedom - they concluded that the King was not sovereign, the government was not sovereign, but that the people were sovereign. And that individuals would have the right to guide their electoral and governmental institutions. And so we had political freedom and so the relationship between the King and the citizen changed, the King became the servant and the citizen became the sovereign in America. That was one difference but there was another difference, personal freedom. We would have the right not just to decide who would represent us in Washington or in our state capitals, but also the right to choose our course in life. Government wouldn't tell us what we would have to be, the circumstance of our birth would not dictate the nature of our life. Instead we would be free to choose our own path in life, and by virtue of those two freedoms this became the land of opportunity." 18:26:39: "People from all over the world who wanted to overcome the circumstances of their birth or the poverty in their nation or just to have a new start came here and made this their home. We are their descendants. A nation of pioneers and champions, builders, creators, that's who Americans are, it's in our DNA if you will, and it's made us an economic powerhouse because as we've competed with other great nations, the nations from which many of us came in Europe or even the more populous nations of Asia what has allowed us to stay ahead of them is the innovative, entrepreneurial, risk-taking passion of the American people." "Because these other nations were older, they had more capital, more infrastructure, other nations more populous, and yet we lead the world. The average American has about 1/3 more income than the average European. the innovative pioneering spirit is distinct in this country. What concerns me is I watch Washington today and watch our President and the people around him is that I don't think they understand that free people choosing their course in life, building enterprises that they then guide. I think fundamentally they believe that government, guiding our lives and guiding our enterprises, can do a better job than free people. What makes America great is not a great government, it is a great people living by principles that are eternal." 18:28:10: "I appreciate the power of the founding fathers. And the recognition of this great truth that would make America the hope of the Earth. Now I see us as an opportunity society, a merit society, where people by virtue of their education, their hard work, risk-taking, and maybe a little luck are able to achieve great successes and great rewards and oh by the way, as they do so, they also employ us, the rest of us, and help lift us all." 18:28:50: "I think our President would like to change that and make America more of an entitlement society where we all feel we're entitled to the government giving us something. Where we look to government and look to government to take something to give to us. And what I know that leads us is a society of poverty. Because people don't take risk and they don't see the opportunity in their life. And the brightness and hope is replaced by the darkness of certainty that their hopes will be dashed by a government that knows better than its people. I don't think America should become a nation of entitlement but instead a nation of opportunity and right now I watch what's happening in America and see so many people really struggling. This is a tough time, middle class in America doesn't mean what it used to - it used to be the best thing in the world to be middle class in America, a lot of people out of work right now. The median income in America has dropped 10% in the last 4 years - 10% as gasoline has gone up, food has gone up, and healthcare costs have gone up." 18:29:56: "And I happen to believe that one of the reasons it's been so hard for this economy to get going again is because the people in Washington have tried to have the government run things. and they've done things that have made it harder for entrepreneurs, for innovators, and businesses large and small to invest in America. And they've instead gone elsewhere. Or just held onto their money until they have some clarity of the future. I saw that the person who runs the Coca-Cola company said that the business environment in China is more favorable than the business environment in America. Now think about that, it was unthinkable that when Nixon went to China that anyone would ever say such a thing. How could that have happened - that we have so overburdened our enterprise and our system with government - trying to guide things, that businesses are going elsewhere. And they take our jobs when that happens." 18:30:50: "And so I have a number of things I want to do, one I want to return America to being the world's most opportunity nation. And I want to make sure this is the best place in the world for job growths and new expansion. I want to make America an attractive place for job creators again. And I'm going to go to work to get good jobs back. I know how to do that by the way, I know how business people make decisions because I was one for 25 years. I know how they look when they decide they're going to build a factory in China or a factory in the United States. And I'm going to make sure that we make ourselves more attractive so they build here and don't take jobs elsewhere." 18:31:30: "I'm not going to build a wall around America, I'm just going to make America the best place for job growth." (APPLAUSE) 18:31:47: "Now I know we're going to get a chance to talk about problems because you're going to raise them and I want you to know this - I don't think there are any problems in America that we can't overcome. I am highly confident in the future of this country. I have seen the American people over the years, and frankly over the centuries as I read my history books, overcoming whatever challenges have come our way. And that has come by the principles on which the nation was founded and people, who I believe, love this country and love those principles of freedom and opportunity." 18:32:20: "I happen to think if we have leaders that will tell the truth and live with integrity, who understand how to lead, who understand how our economy works, and who will draw on the patriotism of the American people and their passion for this country that we'll overcome the challenges that we have. And I intend to be one of those leaders, and if you'll give me your vote and I get the Primary and then go onto become the President. thank you appreciate it so much, getting to spend time with you." (INDICATES WOMAN IN AUDIENCE) "You remind me of Senator Kelly Ayotte, I just looked at you and thought - oh there's Senator Ayotte, I've been traveling with her the other day and thought you could get away - people would think that you're Senator Ayotte. Are these your children here? Wow...wait you said yes, are you talking about all 5 of them. That's great...you have six, that's terrific. Are you the Dad there? Wow that's fabulous, congratulations, what fun. It's a little harder making ends meet though these days, I bet? (WOMAN IS FILMED FROM BACK OF HEAD, ONLY THING THAT IS VISIBLE IS HER DARK HAIR, SHE APPEARS TO NOD HER HEAD) Yeah, yeah. Well congratulations, you guys are lucky to live in a family like this." "I see a, you say a jacket, now I see a man over there - I've seen him before, that guy over there has a funny coat on, he's got an orange vest on and then he's got a green jacket - and you see the green jacket with the white stripes on it - it actually has my signature on it, I can see it from here. That means he was a volunteer at the Olympic Games in 2002 and because he's wearing green (APPLAUSE) Thank you. And because that jacket is green that tells me that he was in something in sports services so that means he could have been a judge, someone grooming the slopes, someone taking care of medical needs. But different color jackets indicated different responsibilities so I appreciate your being here. And I have to tell you this, I talk about the Patriotism of the American people - the games in Salt Lake City were just mired in scandal and we looked at a huge budget deficit. People wanted nothing to do with the Games. There had been a bribery accusation associated with the Games. And people were not interested in participating, we wondered - could we get volunteers? We needed about 25,000 volunteers or so to give us 17 straight days at the Olympics. No pay and by the way, no tickets either. The volunteers don't get tickets, you think 'oh they get seats' oh no they don't get - they're in the parking lot, directing traffic or up on the slopes grooming the slopes for the contest - they don't tickets, they're working 17 straight days. So we wondered if in a city as small as Salt Lake would we able to get that number of people - particularly after the scandal. We worked very hard and we went to the people and said 'we're going to be welcoming the world' this was following 9/11. This was about 4 or 5 months following 9/11 and we asked people to come out and serve and give us that time. And on the first few days we opened up our website and asked people to call in and put in their applications we got some, I think 47,000 people, volunteered from all over the country. Some from right here. Are you going to bring me something here - he's making a move" 18:35:46: (MAN BEGINS TO SPEAK OFF-CAMERA, ROMNEY WALKS OFF-CAMERA, PAN OVER TO ROMNEY WITH SUPPOTER IN OLYMPIC JACKET): Man: I was in New Hampshire for the day and I just thought you and maybe your wife would like to have some pictures of it - it's a 2012 calendar of Mt. Washington." Mitt: "Thank you, thank you I appreciate that - thank you!" "Whoops - whoops I'm dropping things here (HANDS CALENDAR TO ANN) "If anyone else has gifts please feel free to come forward at anytime" (LAUGHTER) 18:36:12: "It was inspirational for me to see all these people come forward and volunteer. We then went through training programs and so forth that we had to actually cut people and say sorry we can't have you volunteer. Did any of you see that Seinfeld where Kramer was showing up someplace every day and was actually not employed and they uh, it was his volunteering. And the boss said: "Well Mr. Kramer I'm sorry you don't seem to work here, we're going to have to let you go." and he said: "Yeah but I'm not paid here, I don't have a job" and he said: "Yeah I know, that's what makes this firing so hard". We nonetheless had wonderful games thanks to the American people and uh, just the spirit of sacrifice and commitment. I actually think that the most inspirational words that were spoken for many years, in my early lifetime were those spoken by JFK: "Ask not what the country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." Americans thrill to the prospect of sacrificing for the nation we love. Well, thank you for that. And now, let me turn to you and see if you have any questions - yes sir" 18:37:19:(QUESTION FROM AUDIENCE): "So the reason I'm here Mitt is because there's an issue that's not being talked about in this country, that affects all of us here in the Valley and all the kids in the Valley, and that's a drug problem that we have in this country. I lost my 19 year old son to a drug overdose going on 11 year now. What I'm looking for in a President and a First Lady - can we use the bully pulpit of the White House, like the Reagans did back in 1980, because nobody's talking about - and we have Ron Paul coming out and legalizing drugs, okay? Here's a paper I'd like to give to you, a microcosm of what's happened with drug legalization portrait, okay, for that if we were to legalize drugs in this country that would be the be all and end all as far as I'm concerned. Our schools are not even safe today, the environment for our kids to learn is not here, the schools here unfortunately and I might get killed now, the schools in this community are failing because of the drug problem and across the country. We need a President whose willing to talk about it, not only at the White House but on this campaign trail. I've asked you before and I'm just asking you again - that's basically it, thanks." 18:38:46: Romney: "I'll tell you what I told you before and folks will find this of interest and that is this - I am concerned with our war on drugs is not as effective as a more comprehensive method which would include marketing or speaking with the young people of America. And we have to continue the effort to interdict those that bring drugs into this country, those that sell drugs into this country, I'm not going to stop that - ***"I'm not going to legalize drugs. And I will fight the legalization of marijuana, it is a gateway drug, I have opposed making that legal and actually those that talk about medicinal marijuana recognize that there's a lot more than just medicinal purpose that's being associated with that movement."*** 18:39:28: "I do believe that we need to embark on a national campaign in the same way for cigarette smoking. With cigarette smoking, remember there was awhile there when you just saw cigarette ads all the time attacking cigarette smoking and I think it had an impact. I'd like to do that with regards to drugs, let me finish let me finish - I'd like to do that with drugs and have a very aggressive effort and how to communicate that - I actually think if young people in this country recognize that if they use or take drugs that they are contributing to the death of other people in the world. What's going on in Mexico with tens of thousands have died in these drug wars is a result of our illegal use of drugs. Their market is overwhelmingly us. And our kids take this because they think it's cool. I don't think they'd think it was so cool if they knew people were dying as a result of that habit. And I think we have to make a very aggressive effort as a nation and I will do so as President. To take some of the dollars we spend in the war on drugs to spend that and communicate that in the White House and elsewhere about the perils of using drugs and make that an extraordinarily high priority in this country. You had another comment, hold on just a moment" (ROMNEY WALKS OVER, HANDS MIC BACK TO MAN) 18:40:39: "We need to bring back the parent groups. Because what happened, after Reagan left and Bush left, Clinton dismantled the parent groups across the country and really bestowed the responsibility on two organization and it's not working, that's all I really can say." Romney: "That's awful and I want to end by saying how deeply I can imagine how the loss of a loved one is from this dread plague of drugs. And I appreciate your commitment to a cause of significance, to save the lives of other young people. And take from other parents, the pain which you felt, we appreciate your commitment to this cause. Look forward to working with you - thank you" (APPLAUSE) 18:41:37: "This family must have - oh here's a question here - (MAN OFF-CAMERA REFUSES MIC) Oh you have a big voice, okay" WIDE SHOT OF ROMNEY WITH AUDIENCE, MAN STANDING ASKING QUESTION - HANDS MITT MILKSHAKE CHOCOLATE, INAUDIBLE SOUND 18:42:38: "New Hampshire, right? that's the right answer. Governor Sununu I know, he's campaigning for this job! It's important isn't it, yeah it is important. The truth is I think it would be very presumptuous for me, not having the nomination, to be figuring out who my Vice-President would be. I might not get the nomination, it might be someone else's choice. We have an embarrassment of riches in the Republican party right now and the list of people in our party that could become Vice-President is actually quite a long list. I will not try go through that list because if I do, people think that's my list. So I won't do that. So when you said Illinois, I'm guessing you mean Indiana with Mitch Daniels, right? Oh okay, sure sure because although you've got Senator Kirk in Illinois. We just have extraordinary people and I can't begun thinking of who would fit that bill. "I will tell you that the key criteria for me is whether or not this is a person who could lead the country and become President. Because I hope to live forever but the prospects of that happening are not 100% and so I have to recognize that someone may have to step in and I were President and have to step in. So that has to be the single most important criteria. And I will evaluate candidates for that job on that basis. Unfortunately, there are quite a few, there are quite a few who could fill that experience - how about you, do you have a suggestion?" (MAN ANSWERS INAUDIBLE) "Thank you, appreciate that." 18:44:08: "Okay I'm going to turn, oh yes sir?" ***OFF-CAMERA QUESTION: "Why do you think that the unemployment rate is actually turning, it was mid-9s and now it's dipping under 9s, even in today's paper the trajectory is for job growth now - so how do you reconcile that with our current President and all this terrible policy?"*** ***18:44:29: Romney: "Oh, very simple and by the way we will go back to having low levels of unemployment. There's never been a recession that didn't end, what's unusual is how long it's taken."*** "In the past it's come back much, much faster. I mean it was two summers ago, that Vice-President Biden said that we were in the recovery summer and that didn't happen. The American people are still suffering, it will come back, recessions come back, what goes down does hit a bottom at some point, struggles along the bottom for awhile, and then comes rebounding - in part because of innovative people, small businesses getting started, folks going out and shopping and encouraging the economy along - so I can assure you that it will come back." "I can also assure you that the record of recovery has been slower under this Administration than at any time since Herbert Hoover and the reason I think it's been so slow is because the businesses by and large that do the majority of the hiring in the country, that they've encountered the one thing they can't deal with as they want to make investment decisions and grow and that is, they can deal with bad news, they just can't deal with uncertainty. And Obamacare gave them an uncertain prospect of what the future would be on their healthcare costs. Cap and trade set energy costs that are going to go up by a lot but by an uncertain amount and then putting the labor stooges into the National Labor Relations Board and changing the relationship between labor and management and saying for instance to Boeing that you can't build a factory in North Carolina for instance because it's a right to work state, those things scare the dickens out of employers and they pulled back." 18:46:12: "Right now American employers have record amounts of cash on their balance sheet. They have all these cash and if you ask them, one chief executive officer, who I happened to meet, he said he was at the White House and spoke with a senior administration official and he said 'why aren't you investing all that money you've got on your balance sheet into America?' and he said 'that's a question you want to ask yourself'. We're not investing in America because you've made America a less attractive place to invest. And so I want those businesses small, very small, 1 person businesses, big businesses, I want them to say 'boy America's great - this is where I want to invest my money!' - not in China, not in Taiwan, not anywhere else but in America. And we can do that, there's no question in my mind. Again the quality of our workforce, we're the most productive workforce in the world. The quality of our workforce, the capacity of our infrastructure, the innovative history of this country, our institutions of higher learning, we will win! As long as we don't have a government that thinks it knows better than free people." 18:47:22: Romney: "Let me give you an example and I think you'll appreciate this: we all think that solar energy for instance, has real potential, and we'd like to see it developed. And I used to be in the venture capital world, where you invested in new technologies and hoped that they were successful. My guess, and I don't know this, but my guess is that 3 or 4 years there were hundreds of different entrepreneurs that were starting one kind of solar energy company or another, using different technologies that they wanted to promote. And the President said 'I want to promote solar energy, so I'm going to pick one of them and give them 5 hundred million dollars. Right now.' That's a lot of money. By the way, when we started Staples, as I recall the first investment, of all the investors, was 5 million dollars, so he put in 500 million into this business. And here's what it did, and here's what I don't think he understood, not having worked in the private sector, when he put 500 million in one business. All those other entrepreneurs weren't going to get money from anybody. They weren't going to get capital from venture capitalists or banks because the government had chosen the winner. So all those other solar businesses dried up, not entirely in some cases, they probably kicked it along a little further. But when government starts to play the role of choosing the winners and the losers it scares everyone else away. And so my impression, my guess is, that the President made it less likely for solar power to be commercialized not more." 18:48:53: "Now we also know that Cylindra went bankrupt. But the importance of that lesson is not just that they went bankrupt. Lots of early stage investments go bankrupt, that's not unusual, what's unusual is by the government playing that role it actually deincentivized the other entrepreneurs starting businesses of that nature." ***18:49:14: "You either believe, as the old Soviet Union did or as Cuba does today and North Korea does that government can do a better job guiding the economy or you can believe that free people doing whatever the heck they want, pursuing their own dreams, hoping to get rich and building their businesses - that that creates a better economy and the history of the world is the latter works and the former doesn't."*** "So I want to make sure that this is a great place for those who want to invest, build, and thereby create jobs for all Americans. Thank you, great question." "Yes, ma'am?" 18:50:00: QUESTION FROM FEMALE AUDIENCE MEMBER: "What is your position on Afghanistan and I believe you've been there, is that true?" Romney: "I have, yeah" QUESTION: "And if you were President, what are your feelings on the tensions in the Middle East?" 18:50:14: Romney: "Let's start with Afghanistan - a very challenging setting in Afghanistan as we attempt at this stage to prepare the Afghan military and security forces to maintain their own sovereignty and determine their own terrorists as opposed to having it determined by terrorists or by the Taliban or others who would rule their country." "So our military is attempting to do the training job as well as it can as quick as it can to pass the baton on. The timeline is that by the end of 2014 we will be completely out of Afghanistan, there may be a few troops that stay for training or organizational purposes but fighting forces will be out by the end of 2014. I think that's the right timeline and we'll see in the interim if we can move more quickly than that or not, and we'll listen to the progress on the ground. But I continue to concur with the decision of the former and current Administration that our goal has to be out by the end of 2014 if not before then." ***18:51:18: "The other thing that has to be recognized, the Afghan people, the Afghan military is going to have to retain their own independence as a sovereign entity. They can't rely on America forever to do that for them."*** ***18:51:35: "In regards to the middle east, this is probably the most dangerous and fragile time I've seen for Israel in my adult lifetime."*** "One - Egypt is in tumult and in parliamentary elections has favored Islamist parties to a significant degree. that is obviously disruptive." "Syria is in tumult as well, with Assad someone we would dearly love to see out of office and we would rather see a form of representative government over there. Syria is a key ally, the only Arab ally of Iran and Iran would like to have the power to not only control Syria but also to go onto Lebanon and so they don't want to lose Assad. He's their key ally. So we're anxious to see Assad out of the way and have that country take a different course. And so that's a different side of the visual, so that neighborhood has become extraordinarily dangerous." "And I'm not at all surprised to have people longing for freedom, that's something we can respect and hope for." ***"I hope our nation would stand up and speak clearly, I was very disappointed when the Iranian dissidents took to the streets after the reelection of Ahmahdinejad, and our President had nothing to say. He said he didn't want to interfere with the elections in Iran. Well, when dissidents are crying for freedom, I think we should stand up and speak."*** "And at this stage, when those nations that are our friends and that have non-representative forms of government we should be working to move them towards representative forms of government. Aggressively helping them in that transition. If there are nations like Syria where dissidents are standing up to tyrants, we should be encouraging those dissidents - with our rhetoric, especially with our covert capabilities. And I wouldn't remove military support of some kind, maybe providing weapons or some kind of military support, that's something one would decide on in the future." "I can tell you this - the decision to involve American kinetic force, our men and women, is a very high threshold decision, it's the sort of thing one would never do easily. It's the sort of thing one would have to consider in great depth all the possible outcomes, sending our men and women into battle, into conflict, is a very serious and deliberative setting and one I would take with the utmost caution and care. Thank you." 18:54:12: "We had a question here, yes sir - QUESTION ASKED BY MAN: "Well my son was wondering what you would do and how you would feel about 'made in America'. Which led me to another question: in 1992 when they were doing the Presidential election I quote Ross Perrot in saying 'if NAFTA goes through, you will hear a giant sucking sound going through to Mexico and to China.' It seems as though he was right, a lot of businesses have gone that way, and I was just wondering what your stance would be on NAFTA and getting jobs back here, if that's possible?" 18:54:49: Romney: "I don't recall precisely what Ross Perrot said, so I will take you at your word, although my recollection is that that giant sucking sound would come from Mexico and China is actually where the job flow has gone. Not so much to Mexico, I'm sure there are many jobs there, I think we could have done a better job in the process of negotiations. I happen to believe that we are wiser and wealthier and more productive if we can sell our goods to other nations and they can sell their goods to us. So I don't believe in putting a wall around us, I just believe in making our place the best place to make investments and jobs and companies. And if that happens we become better off." "The problem with this picture in my view is that a nation more like China than with Mexico. In China they have done three things in what we would generally consider to be free and fair trade: 1) they have stolen technology from our companies. Sometimes counterfeiting brand names, sometimes counterfeiting our products like our music products, our entertainment products, they steal them. We call that intellectual property, they steal that and so therefore the businesses that have created them here. The people who built those things don't get paid for them. The other thing is they've hacked into our computers. Our corporate computers stealing technology, our government computers stealing technology and number 3, they have manipulated their currency. Now this one's kind of hard to follow but here's the general idea, by holding down the value of their currency, the make the prices of their products artificially low, here and around the world. And as they do so, businesses here can't compete with them. Businesses go out of business and "of course people say 'well good, I got these goods for cheap' well yeah - but you lost your job." "And the business is gone. And down the road, they'll raise the value of their currency and we will have lost our industrial base. Our manufacturing base or whatever sector of the economy they happen to have gone after. So I'm not willing to let people cheat on trade. America in my view can compete anywhere in the world. We can compete. We can have the best jobs in the world here as we've had in the past. But not if people cheat, and not if we sit by year after year and watch them run all over us. So if I'm President I will be make it very clear to our trading partners, China, that I'm not going to let them run over us, that I'm going to make sure we do what is necessary for us to have a level playing field where we can compete on a fair basis and on that basis, we'll win and they'll lose. And by the way, my cars are American cars. I like American cars (APPLAUSE). I'll stop there." "Yes?" 18:57:44: "Governor referring back to what you were talking about, immigration, immigrants coming to this country, I am the son of an immigrant. I was the first to graduate from grammar school, high school, college, graduate school, dental school. I raised, we raised 5 children, one here. My question is I'm seeing now, we have lots of grandchildren as you have, education is overwhelming. I cannot see how in future years, we are going to be able to cope with students getting out of college. My partners coming out of dental school owed 350,000 dollars. It's almost impossible to think that they can overcome this in a period of 10-15 years and people worry about medical care and dental care going up. But people don't know how much it cost to get to be a practitioner. If you were President, if you haven't given this a great deal of thought, this must be something on your plan, to help control costs both on the baccaulerate level and on the medical, dental level and so forth?" 18:59:30: Romney: "Thank you, good question. Let me tell you what I think is going to happen in my view. I think young people are going to stop and say 'is it worth it getting a college degree or not'. They're going to say is it worth getting loans of hundreds of thousands of dollars and you know they're going to start shopping around and they're going to say you know what, I'm not going to go to a school that's going to give me a debt that's a hundred thousand dollars, I'm going to go to one and get an education for less. And you're going to see colleges and universities start competing with each other. Of course there will always be the Dartmouths and the Dukes and so forth that will charge a very high price and get a number of terrific students but then there are others that are going to say you know, University of Phoenix, and other state colleges - they're not a state college obviously, University of Phoenix isn't - but we're going to compete by giving people an education at a more reasonable price." 19:00:22: "I was in Florida at a place called Full Sail University and that sounds like a strange name but the person who started this he said you know what, I'm going people how to be camera operators, control people in the media world, entertainers, the whole thing. So he's build this whole university for people in the entertainment industry. They don't have summer vacation, they go right straight through because they say gosh, kids going to college, this is costing them money if they're not out at a job, so why cut off during the summer and so I think it's 26 months but they get their 4 year degree. That's number 1. Number 2 at this University campus of his there were like a hundred different studios because they need to be trained in studios and he said these things are expensive. So our classes run 24 hours a day and when you sign up for a class you can't pass that class unless you've attend 90% of the class work and sometimes your class at 1 am or 3am or 5am and that way they keep the cost down. And so they compete on the basis of cost. And they use computerization. And they have faculty members who can teach a much larger number of students by use of software and computers. I think we're going to have to bring the kind of productivity enhancements to education that have been brought to almost everything else in America besides government and healthcare. And if we do that, we'll be able to have people compete and they'll be able to say I can get a better deal over here for less money, and I think our students have to do that. I think we're going to have to tell our kids - 'hey don't just go to the most famous school, alright? go to a place where you can get an education for the right price. where the cost benefit is best.' ***"And with regards to higher, if you will, the post-degree education I don't know how the heck we're going to do that because the loans those guys get are just so overwhelming. My son completed medical school and residency, he's in the middle of residency and he looks at his colleagues and how much debt they have and he just doesn't know how they're going to make that work. So we have to find a way to educate our people without spending so extraordinarily much in the education process. In K-12, we're learning, in college I think we're learning and seeing competition. In graduate school I think we've got a long way to go. Thank you, good question."*** 19:03:00 Question: "I currently live in the Washington Valley, but I grew up in Washington, DC, so I've seen Washington at its best and its worst, and I have to tell you, I've never seen it as bad as it is right now, and I think when I look at the reasons why, I go back to when Obama won the election and all the problems he made on the campaign trail about working together and changing the culture, and when he won and realized he had a filibuster-proof majority, he didn't need the Republicans, what he, and Reid, and Pelosi decided to do was just cut the Republicans out of the process, and he just became to me president for just the people that voted for him, and what my question to you is: If you were to win as president, and the Republicans were lucky enough to take back the Senate, would you cut the Democrats out of the law-making process, or would you take the approach you did in Massachusetts?" ***19:03:49 Romney: "I think you nailed that. I think she got it just right, which is I think the President had the misfortune. He didn't know it was misfortune. He never led before. He wasn't the leader in the Illinois Senate. He wasn't the leader in the US Senate. So, he became president, and for the first time in his life he was a leader, and he thought, 'Well, if I'm the leader and I've got a party that controls both houses, I'll do all the things I wanna do.' And he didn't realize that one of the responsibilities of leadership is bringing the entire body together and doing what he said during his campaign. I'm just saying what you said yourself, alight? I'm just repeating what you said. I think he had that misfortune, and therefore did not build the relationships of respect and trust that a leader has to build with the opposition. And so then, when the Republicans took the House, he didn't know how to deal with this, and we weren't anxious to cotton up to him either, given the way he treated us for the prior two years. And so I look at. You're right. You look at my experience in Massachusetts, I had the misfortune, which turned out to be the good fortune of being elected governor of a state where my legislature was 85% Democrat. And so it did not take a rocket scientist to figure out that to get anything done, I had to have good Democrats that trusted me and would work with me, because in my state not any one of my vetoes would be upheld if the Senate President and Speaker of the House said, 'overturn that veto' to their members. So I had t build those relationships of respect." 19:05:23 "I did not attack the Speaker and the Senate President, as I recall, on a personal basis. We disagreed on some issues, but I was careful. We had some experiences I won't share, because they were private, between the three of us, the Speaker, the Senate President, both the Democrats and myself, but we respected each other and came together on important issues. They did not expect me to violate my principles. Nor did I expect them to violate their principles. But Republicans and Democrats both love America, and Republicans and Democrats in my state both love the State of Massachusetts and wanted to help the state, and so we came together at critical times." 19:06:03 "There was a time, for instance, when my administration was the first time that the test that's given to seniors in high schools counts, and that means that in order to graduate from a Massachusetts high school, you had to pass a test in English and math. You got several chances to do it, but my year was the first time you had to pass it to graduate. And there were a lot of parents who said, 'I don't want that, I want my kid to graduate whether or not they can pass that test.' And there was a mayor that said, 'I'm gonna give them graduation certificates anyway.' And my legislature could have said, 'Hey, we're gonna go along with those people. We're gonna get rid of this requirement that you have to pass a test to graduate from high school.' They didn't do that. We stood together. I went to that mayor. I actually didn't go to him, I said in the newspaper. I said I think we send your city, the city of New Bedford, about a hundred million dollars a year from the state. I'm not gonna send that to you next year unless you follow this requirement. As someone said, when he felt the heat, he saw the light. And so we were able to. But that could not have happened had there not been respect for one another, and had there not been, if you will, common ground. And even though we came at education differently, we recognized the importance of high standards and sticking by our commitments." ***19:07:25 "So I. If I get to Washington, I will not compromise my principles, but I will work with Democrats across the aisle, who have their own principles, and find places where we can agree. And by the way, with 15 trillion dollars in debt, and by next year that's gonna be up to 16 trillion, which will be about 80-90% of the GDP, we're now getting close to the Italy level, the Greece-type level. We will, at some point, run into what Italy and Spain and other nations have run into, and we will have catastrophe unlike anything we've ever known in this country unless we finally get control of our budget, and so Republicans and Democrats are going to have to find sufficient common ground to finally deal with this crisis, and I intend to do that. It's one of the reasons I'm running. Thank you." 19:08:21 Question: "Relatability has been a large issue for you on this campaign trail, and as a college student, many people of my generation and cohort find it especially hard to relate to you as a candidate, and building off what the gentleman said back there when you mentioned the for-profit institution as a substitution for the traditional college degree, we as college students feel like not a viable option, that's not what employers are looking for, which makes us feel as if your finger's even farther." Video ends. Romney: Elect me, you'll get a job; elect Obama and you won't There's nothing new about politicians making promises they are no position to keep. Herbert Hoover's 1928 campaign promised a chicken in every pot "and a car in every backyard, to boot." Michele Bachmann is promising $2 a gallon gasoline. President Obama promised "hope and change." But when it comes to political pandering, it's hard to beat a promise Mitt Romney made on Thursday in New Hampshire to a 21-year-old college student named Kallie Durkit, who wanted to know why college students should support Romney instead of Barack Obama. "What I can promise you is this - when you get out of college, if I'm president you'll have a job. If President Obama is reelected, you will not be able to get a job," Romney said. And it be clear: Romney was not offering Ms. Durkit a job in the White House. That would be an easy promise to keep. Romney's promise was directed at all college students. He was crystal clear: If Obama is elected they will not find work. But If Romney is elected they will. A guarantee sealed by the promise of a man running for President. Here's the full question and response, courtesy of ABC News' Emily Friedman: Kallie Durkit: "Relatability has been a large issue for you on this campaign trail, and as a college student many people in my generation find it especially hard to relate to you as a candidate," said 21-year-old Kallie Durkit, who attends Bowling Green State University, in Ohio. "Why should we mobilize for you as a candidate instead of Obama, which we did in 2008?" Mitt Romney: "What I can promise you is this - when you get out of college, if I'm president you'll have a job," said Romney. "If President Obama is reelected, you will not be able to get a job. That's the reason I will hopefully get young people who are in college is to say, You know what, I understand what it takes to get jobs in America." The promise closely echoes something Romney said on an entirely different subject back in November. "If we re-elect Barack Obama, Iran will have a nuclear weapon," Romney said during a debate on foreign policy sponsored by CBS News and National Journal. "If you elect me as president, Iran will not have a nuclear weapon." So, in summary: If Mitt Romney is elected there will jobs for everybody graduating college and a nuclear free Iran. If Obama is elected nobody graduating college will find work and the world will be one step closer to nuclear annihilation. One final note: To be fair to Herbert Hoover, he never actually promised a chicken in every pot. That came from a newspaper ad placed in support of his campaign by the Republican National Committee in 1928 urging Americans to vote for Hoover. According to the Hoover Presidential Library, "The ad described in detail how the Republican administrations of Harding and Coolidge had 'reduced hours and increased earning capacity, silenced discontent, put the proverbial 'chicken in every pot.' And a car in every backyard, to boot.'"