Pres. Obama on Romney and Bain: 'When you're president, your job is not simply to maximize profits'

President Obama, responding to a reporter's question at today's NATO summit, makes the case for why Mitt Romney's record at Bain Capital is relevant to the 2012 campaign:

The reason why this is relevant to the campaign is that my opponent, Governor Romney, his main calling card for why he thinks he should be president is his business experience. He's not going out there touting his experience in Massachusetts. He's saying, I'm a business guy, and I know how to fix it, and this is his business.

And when you're president, as opposed to the head of a private equity firm, your job is not simply to maximize profits. Your job is to figure out how everybody in the country has a fair shot. Your job is to think about those workers who get laid off, and how are we paying for their retraining. Your job is to think about how those communities can start creating new clusters so they can attract new businesses. Your job as president is to think about how do we set up an equitable tax system so that everybody's paying their fair share, that allows us then to invest in science, and technology, and infrastructure, all of which are going to help us grow.

And so if your main argument for how to grow the economy is "I knew how to make a lot of money for investors," then you're missing what this job is about. It doesn't mean you weren't good at private equity. But that's not what my job is as president.

My job is to take into account everybody, not just some. My job is to make sure the country is growing not just now, but 10 years from now, 20 years from now.

2:15 PM PT: The other line that is getting a lot of attention is this one:

This is not a distraction. This is what this campaign is going to be about.

President Obama didn't literally mean that Bain, exclusively, is what the campaign will be about, but rather the debate over "how do we have an economy, where everybody, from top to bottom, folks on Wall Street and folks on Main Street, have a shot at success" and "the American Dream."

2:18 PM PT: President Obama also made it clear he wasn't out to put a black eye on private equity. "My view of private equity," he said, "is it is set up to maximize profits." That isn't a bad thing, he said. "And that's a healthy part of the free market. That's part of the role of a lot of business people. That's not unique to private equity," he said. "I think there are folks who do good work in that area, and there are times where they identify the capacity for the economy to create new jobs or new industries."

2:21 PM PT: Oh, and as it relates to Cory Booker, here's what Obama said:

I think Cory Booker is an outstanding mayor, he's doing great work in Newark, and obviously helping to turn that city around.

Republicans reacted to Booker's comments with such glee that they probably have already forgotten that Obama still supports Booker, and that Booker still supports Obama.