SALT LAKE CITY — US President Barack Obama said presidents must represent all of America, not just their own core voters, as he aimed to capitalize on Mitt Romney's comment that 47 percent of his countrymen were tax-dodging “victims”. Obama took the high road but aimed a shot at his Republican opponent, who is still trying to regroup after the release of secret videos showing him disparaging Obama voters as government dependents who cannot take responsibility for their own lives. “One of the things I learned as president is you represent the entire country. If you want to be president, you have to work for everyone,” Obama told CBS talk show host David Letterman. “When I won in 2008, 47 percent of the American people voted for John McCain,” Obama said, referring to his Republican opponent that year. “They didn't vote for me, and what I said on election night was, ‘even though you didn't vote for me, I hear your voices, and I'm going to work as hard as I can to be your president'.” Romney was seen telling donors in video released on Monday that 47 percent of US voters were guaranteed to support the Democratic president because they relied on the government for health care, food and housing, and viewed themselves as “victims”. “These are people who pay no income tax ... so our message of low taxes doesn't connect,” he said in the secretly filmed footage of an event with wealthy donors in Florida that was published by Mother Jones magazine. “My job is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives,” he said. The comments bolstered an impression that Romney, a multi-millionaire former venture capitalist, has little understanding of the suffering endured by Americans stuck in the slow recovery from the deepest recession in decades. With 48 days before the November 6 election, the Republican's campaign however received a moment of respite when Gallup's daily tracking poll found him drawing within a single percentage point of the president. The survey suggested that Obama's polling “bounce” following the Democratic National Convention two weeks ago had subsided. But an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll published on Tuesday evening put Obama up 50 to 45 percent among likely voters, and pegged his approval rating at the 50 percent mark is regarded as the minimum required for re-election. The president, however, at a gala fundraiser hosted by music stars Beyonce and Jay-Z at their New York nightclub, cautioned his supporters against thinking the race was anything other than a tough fight. “I don't want people to be complacent, but I also don't want people to be discouraged,” he told around 100 guests at the 40-40 club, who each paid $40,000 for a ticket. Yet the video of Romney addressing a meeting of his own well-heeled donors in Florida in May is likely to dominate the campaign for some days. The leaked footage also featured the candidate suggesting that as president he would treat the Middle East peace talks as a lost cause. “I look at the Palestinians not wanting to see peace anyway, for political purposes, committed to the destruction and elimination of Israel, and these thorny issues, and I say there's just no way,” said Romney. “You move things along the best way you can. You hope for some degree of stability, but you recognize that this is going to remain an unsolved problem - and we kick the ball down the field and hope that ultimately, somehow, something will happen and resolve it.” The White House said. Romney's remarks showed he was not fit to lead and noted that Obama's predecessors, both Democrat Bill Clinton and Republican George W Bush, took on the treacherous search for Middle East peace. — Agencies
