Say What Now of the Day

President Obama is backpedaling furiously after his poorly chosen words at a news conference this morning caused a massive backlash:

We've created 4.3 million jobs over the last 27 months; over 800,000 just this year alone. The private sector is doing fine.

Mitt Romney's camp quickly seized on the slipup, calling it the "gift that keeps on giving":

People know what the president said is terribly out of touch. But they also know that his actions have been terribly out of touch. So what he is saying is shocking but it's not anything that people haven't felt. Ours is a reality-based campaign, and this is reality.

Obama attempted to clarify his remarks this afternoon: "It is absolutely clear that the economy is not doing fine. That's why I had a press conference." [mediaite]