How much should we read into Obama, Romney gaffes?

>>> fountain in the fish bowl it's a tough few days for the president including friday when he said the private sector is doing fine. the romney campaign wasted no time in producing a fresh ad to hammer the president. take a look.

>> just a bad -- bad number.

>> but, overall here, nowhere to really hide given this report.

>> the private sector is doing fine. where we are seeing weaknesses in our economy had to do with state and local government . the private sector is doing fine.

>> romney went after teachers and cops and firefighters which led to this response from the dnc.

>> he says we need more firemen, more policemen, more teachers. did he not get the message of wisconsin? the american people did. it's time for us to cut back on government and help the american people !

>> the executive director at the democratic national committee is here.

>> thank you.

>> the president corrected himself within minutes of making that comment on friday. romney has offered up plentiful gaffes. should we treat these as mistakes by both sides? or do they tell us something genuine about both candidates?

>> well, i think that there's a clear distinction to be made here, martin. the president, obviously, was laying out an argument for why republican leadership in congress needed to, right now, pass a jobs bill that will put construction workers back to work and repairing our infrastructure and put teachers in the classroom and educate our children and reduce the class size and more first responds back on the streets and in firehouses to keep the public safe.

>> moody says that american jobs act would raise gdp by at least 1%, would create at least a million jobs. this is an assessment by an economic analytical firm.

>> exactly right. martin, conversely, independent analysts said that mitt romney 's economic policies would drive us ba back into a recession. let's make it really, really clear here for your viewers. mitt romney did not make a gaffe. he was doubling down on stated policy and he was actually echoing the work he had done in massachusetts . martin, when mitt romney was governor of massachusetts , he slashed spending for teachers, for firefighters, for police officers , the very same public heroes that he was disparaging a few days in iowa. as a consequence of that, we had classrooms that were overcrowded in massachusetts , we had a spike in the homicide rate in the state, and his cuts to essential protective services for firefighters was so egregious that even republicans in the statehouse in massachusetts voted unanimously to override his cuts.

>> it sounds like president clinton has him right that he is less a flip-flopper and more consistently and severely conservative. but, today, romney announced his every town bus tour in the press release, romney says, quote, for three and a half years president obama has paid little attention to the everyday concerns of the american people . how do you respond to that, when romney is the candidate saying we should lay off even more teachers and police officers ?

>> yeah. it's not a surprising statement coming from a candidate who clearly has been living in an alternate reality if he wants to slash first responders and the teachers that are allowing our young people to outcompete and outinnovate their competitors overseas. when the president spoke from the podium a few days ago he was very clear in the last 27 months we have grown 3.3 million jobs. the private sector but lost about 450,000 jobs in the public sector in this country. which is exactly why we need republican leadership in congress to do the right thing and to pass that jobs bill and we need mitt romney to get off the bus and to actually communicate with boehner, ryan and all of the folks who he has been embrace to go get them to act like leaders in this make or break moment for the middle class in this country.

>> good luck with that. i think you'll find that boehner and paul ryan are dictating what romney does and not the other way around. this hasn't been the pre's best month in terms of message discipline . it's been tough because of some of the surrogates who have said certain things that have provoked corrections and so on. can the president turn it around and begin dictating this campaign, instead of the sense in which it looks as though he is having to react to what romney does?

>> well, martin, campaigns are a human enterprise. surrogates on both sides from time to time will have to clarify and correct themselves. but at the end of the day , that's not what the american people ultimately care about. in terms of messaged discipline, this president has been consistent from day one that the recession that we found ourselves in, the hole we found ourselves in was not created overnight. it took a decade to get us there, and we will not come out and recover fully as a nation overnight. there are important pillars he has put in place to help us grow jobs and have really spurred the private sector economy, and in the very near term, we need to do the kinds of things that will allow us to build our infrastructure. martin, it's shameful that right now, china is outpacing us at a ratio 4-1 in terms of investing in their infrastructure. europe 2 -1. i don't believe that the american people be the republicans, democrats, or independents believe we are going to continue to dominate in the 21st century and be the beacon on this planet if we allow that to happen. and that is exactly what mitt romney 's policies will take us to. this president has been consistent in his message is from day one that we can only get full growth by encouraging both the private and the public sector and that we have got a long ways to go, but the investments we have made in clean energy , the investments we have made in innovative technology will lead the way here.

>> patrick, executive director of the dnc, thank you, sir, for joining us.