waiting all day to talk to you, so I want to get right to it.

Governor Romney, as you know, you won the coin toss, so the first question will go to

you. And I want to turn to a first-time voter, Jeremy Epstein, who has a question for you.

QUESTION: Mr. President, Governor Romney, as a 20-year-old college student, all I hear

from professors, neighbors and others is that when I graduate, I will have little chance

to get employment. What can you say to reassure me, but more importantly my parents, that

I will be able to sufficiently support myself after I graduate?

ROMNEY: Thank you, Jeremy. I appreciate your — your question, and thank you for being

here this evening and to all of those from Nassau County that have come, thank you for

your time. Thank you to Hofstra University and to Candy Crowley for organizing and leading

this — this event. Thank you, Mr. President, also for being part

of this — this debate. Your question — your question is one that’s

being asked by college kids all over this country. I was in Pennsylvania with someone

who had just graduated — this was in Philadelphia — and she said, “I’ve got my degree.

I can’t find a job. I’ve got three part- time jobs. They’re just barely enough to

pay for my food and pay for an apartment. I can’t begin to pay back my student loans.”

So what we have to do is two things. We have to make sure that we make it easier for kids

to afford college. ROMNEY: And also make sure that when they

get out of college, there’s a job. When I was governor of Massachusetts, to get a

high school degree, you had to pass an exam. If you graduated in the top quarter of your

airlines, we gave you a John and Abigail Adams scholarship, four years tuition free in the

college of your choice in Massachusetts, it’s a public institution.

I want to make sure we keep our Pell grant program growing. We’re also going to have

our loan program, so that people are able to afford school. But the key thing is to

make sure you can get a job when you get out of school. And what’s happened over the

last four years has been very, very hard for America’s young people. I want you to be

able to get a job. I know what it takes to get this economy going.

With half of college kids graduating this year without a college — excuse me, without

a job. And without a college level job, that’s just unacceptable.

And likewise you’ve got more and more debt on your back. So more debt and less jobs.

I’m going to change that. I know what it takes to create good jobs again. I know what

it takes to make sure that you have the kind of opportunity you deserve. And kids across

this country are going to recognize, we’re bringing back an economy.

It’s not going to be like the last four years. The middle-class has been crushed over

the last four years, and jobs have been too scarce. I know what it takes to bring them

back, and I’m going to do that, and make sure that when you graduate — when do you

graduate? QUESTION: 2014.

ROMNEY: 2014. When you come out in 2014, I presume I’m going to be president. I’m

going to make sure you get a job. Thanks Jeremy. Yeah, you bet.

CROWLEY: Mr. President? OBAMA: Jeremy, first of all, your future is

bright. And the fact that you’re making an investment in higher education is critical.

Not just to you, but to the entire nation. Now, the most important thing we can do is

to make sure that we are creating jobs in this country. But not just jobs, good paying

jobs. Ones that can support a family. OBAMA: And what I want to do, is build on

the five million jobs that we’ve created over the last 30 months in the private sector

alone. And there are a bunch of things we can do to make sure your future is bright.

Number one, I want to build manufacturing jobs in this country again. Now when Governor

Romney said we should let Detroit go bankrupt. I said we’re going to bet on American workers

and the American auto industry and it’s come surging back.

I want to do that in industries, not just in Detroit, but all across the country and

that means we change our tax code so we’re giving incentives to companies that are investing

here in the United States and creating jobs here.

It also means we’re helping them and small businesses to export all around the world

to new markets. Number two, we’ve got to make sure that

we have the best education system in the world. And the fact that you’re going to college

is great, but I want everybody to get a great education and we’ve worked hard to make

sure that student loans are available for folks like you, but I also want to make sure

that community colleges are offering slots for workers to get retrained for the jobs

that are out there right now and the jobs of the future.

Number three, we’ve got to control our own energy. Now, not only oil and natural gas,

which we’ve been investing in; but also, we’ve got to make sure we’re building

the energy source of the future, not just thinking about next year, but ten years from

now, 20 years from now. That’s why we’ve invested in solar and wind and biofuels, energy

efficient cars. We’ve got to reduce our deficit, but we’ve

got to do it in a balanced way. Asking the wealthy to pay a little bit more along with

cuts so that we can invest in education like yours.

And let’s take the money that we’ve been spending on war over the last decade to rebuild

America, roads, bridges schools. We do those things, not only is your future going to be

bright but America’s future is going to bright as well.

CROWLEY: Let me ask you for more immediate answer and begin with Mr. Romney just quickly

what — what can you do? We’re looking at a situation where 40 percent of the unemployed

have been unemployed have been unemployed for six months or more. They don’t have

the two years that Jeremy has. What about those long term unemployed who

need a job right now? ROMNEY: Well what you’re seeing in this

country is 23 million people struggling to find a job. And a lot of them, as you say,

Candy, have been out of work for a long, long, long time. The president’s policies have

been exercised over the last four years and they haven’t put Americans back to work.

We have fewer people working today than we had when the president took office. If the

— the unemployment rate was 7.8 percent when he took office, it’s 7.8 percent now.

But if you calculated that unemployment rate, taking back the people who dropped out of

the workforce, it would be 10.7 percent. We have not made the progress we need to make

to put people back to work. That’s why I put out a five-point plan that gets America

12 million new jobs in four years and rising take-home pay. It’s going to help Jeremy

get a job when he comes out of school. It’s going to help people across the country that

are unemployed right now. And one thing that the president said, which

I want to make sure that we understand, he said that I said we should take Detroit bankrupt.

And that’s right. My plan was to have the company go through bankruptcy like 7-Eleven

did and Macy’s and Condell (ph) Airlines and come out stronger.

And I know he keeps saying, you want to take Detroit bankrupt. Well, the president took

Detroit bankrupt. You took General Motors bankrupt. You took Chrysler bankrupt. So when

you say that I wanted to take the auto industry bankrupt, you actually did.

And I think it’s important to know that that was a process that was necessary to get

those companies back on their feet, so they could start hiring more people. That was precisely

what I recommended and ultimately what happened. CROWLEY: Let me give the president a chance.

Go ahead. OBAMA: Candy, what Governor Romney said just isn’t true. He wanted to take

them into bankruptcy without providing them any way to stay open. And we would have lost

a million jobs. And that — don’t take my word for it, take the executives at GM

and Chrysler, some of whom are Republicans, may even support Governor Romney. But they’ll

tell you his prescription wasn’t going to work.

And Governor Romney’s says he’s got a five-point plan? Governor Romney doesn’t

have a five-point plan. He has a one-point plan. And that plan is to make sure that folks

at the top play by a different set of rules. That’s been his philosophy in the private

sector, that’s been his philosophy as governor, that’s been his philosophy as a presidential

candidate. You can make a lot of money and pay lower

tax rates than somebody who makes a lot less. You can ship jobs overseas and get tax breaks

for it. You can invest in a company, bankrupt it, lay off the workers, strip away their

pensions, and you still make money. That’s exactly the philosophy that we’ve

seen in place for the last decade. That’s what’s been squeezing middle class families.

And we have fought back for four years to get out of that mess. The last thing we need

to do is to go back to the very same policies that got us there.

CROWLEY: Mr. President, the next question is going to be for you here.

And, Mr. Romney — Governor Romney — there’ll be plenty of chances here to go on, but I

want to… ROMNEY: That — that Detroit — that Detroit

answer… CROWLEY: We have all these folks.

ROMNEY: … that Detroit answer… CROWLEY: I will let you absolutely…

ROMNEY: … and the rest of the answer, way off the mark.

CROWLEY: OK. Will — will — you certainly will have lots of time here coming up.

Because I want to move you on to something that’s sort of connected to cars here, and

— and go over. And we want to get a question from Phillip Tricolla.

QUESTION: Your energy secretary, Steven Chu, has now been on record three times stating

it’s not policy of his department to help lower gas prices. Do you agree with Secretary

Chu that this is not the job of the Energy Department?

OBAMA: The most important thing we can do is to make sure we control our own energy.

So here’s what I’ve done since I’ve been president. We have increased oil production

to the highest levels in 16 years. Natural gas production is the highest it’s

been in decades. We have seen increases in coal production and coal employment. But what

I’ve also said is we can’t just produce traditional source of energy. We’ve also

got to look to the future. That’s why we doubled fuel efficiency standards on cars.

That means that in the middle of the next decade, any car you buy, you’re going to

end up going twice as far on a gallon of gas. That’s why we doubled clean — clean energy

production like wind and solar and biofuels. And all these things have contributed to us

lowering our oil imports to the lowest levels in 16 years. Now, I want to build on that.

And that means, yes, we still continue to open up new areas for drilling. We continue

to make it a priority for us to go after natural gas. We’ve got potentially 600,000 jobs

and 100 years worth of energy right beneath our feet with natural gas.

And we can do it in an environmentally sound way. But we’ve also got to continue to figure

out how we have efficiency energy, because ultimately that’s how we’re going to reduce

demand and that’s what’s going to keep gas prices lower.

Now, Governor Romney will say he’s got an all-of-the-above plan, but basically his plan

is to let the oil companies write the energy policies. So he’s got the oil and gas part,

but he doesn’t have the clean energy part. And if we are only thinking about tomorrow

or the next day and not thinking about 10 years from now, we’re not going to control

our own economic future. Because China, Germany, they’re making these investments. And I’m

not going to cede those jobs of the future to those countries. I expect those new energy

sources to be built right here in the United States.

That’s going to help Jeremy get a job. It’s also going to make sure that you’re not

paying as much for gas. CROWLEY: Governor, on the subject of gas prices?

ROMNEY: Well, let’s look at the president’s policies, all right, as opposed to the rhetoric,

because we’ve had four years of policies being played out. And the president’s right

in terms of the additional oil production, but none of it came on federal land. As a

matter of fact, oil production is down 14 percent this year on federal land, and gas

production was down 9 percent. Why? Because the president cut in half the number of licenses

and permits for drilling on federal lands, and in federal waters.

So where’d the increase come from? Well a lot of it came from the Bakken Range in

North Dakota. What was his participation there? The administration brought a criminal action

against the people drilling up there for oil, this massive new resource we have. And what

was the cost? 20 or 25 birds were killed and brought out a migratory bird act to go after

them on a criminal basis. Look, I want to make sure we use our oil,

our coal, our gas, our nuclear, our renewables. I believe very much in our renewable capabilities;

ethanol, wind, solar will be an important part of our energy mix.

But what we don’t need is to have the president keeping us from taking advantage of oil, coal

and gas. This has not been Mr. Oil, or Mr. Gas, or Mr. Coal. Talk to the people that

are working in those industries. I was in coal country. People grabbed my arms and said,

“Please save my job.” The head of the EPA said, “You can’t build a coal plant.

You’ll virtually — it’s virtually impossible given our regulations.” When the president

ran for office, he said if you build a coal plant, you can go ahead, but you’ll go bankrupt.

That’s not the right course for America. Let’s take advantage of the energy resources

we have, as well as the energy sources for the future. And if we do that, if we do what

I’m planning on doing, which is getting us energy independent, North America energy

independence within eight years, you’re going to see manufacturing jobs come back.