Obama: We Shouldn’t ‘Label Folks’ Democrats And Republicans

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President Obama used the example of Scott Van Duzer, the Florida pizza restaurant owner who famously picked up the president, to explain why people shouldn’t “label folks” as Republican and Democrat at a fundraiser in New York Tuesday, hosted by Jay-Z and Beyonce. Though he didn’t mention Mitt Romney by name, the comment comes after leaked footage of Romney saying he won’t “worry” about the 47 percent of Americans he can’t  convince to vote for him. 

“Some of you saw — I was just on Letterman before I came here, and some of you saw that he showed that picture of that pizza owner who picked me up and lifted me up and kind of straightened out my back,” Obama said, according to remarks released by the White House. “Well, this guy, he started his own pizza company and is a Republican, but is somebody who thought that I shared with him a passion for doing the right thing. And he started his own blood drive in the community that is now the largest blood drive in Florida, and is passionate about helping folks who haven’t had a chance, and wants to make sure that they succeed.”

Obama continued: “And so when I hear people trying to label folks as, well, these are Republicans, or these are Democrats, or these are people who don’t understand the country — when I hear those divisions, I say, well, you’re not paying attention to what’s going on in the country. There’s a lot of good out there.”

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