Obama bound the speech together with the theme of Romney’s dishonesty. | John Shinkle/POLITICO Obama returns to hard tack on Mitt

FAIRFAX, Va. — President Barack Obama seems to have remembered the things he forgot to say in the debate.

The president was in an aggressive mood here Friday as he addressed a women’s rally at George Mason University in suburban Virginia. Unlike on stage in Denver on Wednesday, he referenced many of what have proven the most potent attacks of his campaign, including knocking Mitt Romney’s “47 percent” comments and unloading on the Republican nominee’s positions on women’s health. And he talked in more length and more depth than any time recently about his health care reforms.


Obama bound the speech together with the theme of Romney’s dishonesty and what’s become the most memorable single line out of the first debate — Romney’s pledge to cut funding for PBS by defunding Big Bird.

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“Gov. Romney plans to let Wall Street run wild again but he’s going to bring down the hammer on Sesame Street,” Obama said.

Later, Obama tied it to a broader Romney critique that he is not being forthright about his economic plans.

“Gov. Romney said he’d get rid of Planned Parenthood funding,” Obama said. “Apparently this, along with Big Bird, is driving the deficit.”

The crowd briefly chanted “P-B-S.”

But the biggest change from recent Obama speeches was an extended boasting about the health care reforms. He tipped into this through a reference to Romney’s claim at the debate that his health care plan covers pre-existing conditions. Obama said that was phony — and cited Romney aide Eric Fehrnstrom’s debate spin room walk-back of Romney’s debate comment as evidence.

“Gov. Romney was fact-checked by his own campaign,” Obama said. “That is rough.”

The Romney campaign disagreed with Obama’s assessment.

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“The attempts to confuse and misstate Gov. Romney’s position on protecting those with pre-existing conditions simply will not work,” Romney campaign policy director Lanhee Chen told POLITICO in a statement, calling the policy “consistent and clear.”

“Insurance companies will be prohibited from denying coverage to those with pre-existing conditions who have maintained continuous coverage. This protects individuals and families who might lose their job, or who simply want to own their own insurance instead of receiving it from an employer,” Chen said.

But the president said his health care plan was the only one fundamentally about providing economic security to middle class families.

“How many of you have gone without the care you need it or the check-ups you need because you were worried that the insurance co-pay would go too high and you could not afford gas our groceries?” Obama said.

“The new health care law helps make sure you do not have to worry about going broke just because you or a loved one gets sick,” Obama said.

Obama said that his health care law — reviled by conservative activists as a federal takeover of the health care system — actually gave women more control over their care, without interference from politicians or their bosses.

Romney, Obama said, supported policies that would allow employers and the government to make women’s health care decisions.

“Think about that: your boss telling you what is best for your health and safety.” Obama said. “I don’t think your boss should control the care you care. I don’t think insurance companies should control the care you get. I definitely don’t think politicians on Capitol Hill should control the care you get.”

“I think there’s one person who gets to make decisions about your health care — that is you,” Obama said. “My opponent has called himself ‘severely conservative,’ but, let me tell you something, there’s nothing conservative … about a government that prevents a woman from making her own health care decisions.”

Obama also took a shot at the Romney aide who said, “We’ll get back to you on that,” when asked on a conference call if Romney supports the Lily Ledbetter equal pay law Obama signed in 2009. He touted his appointment of “two extraordinary women” to the Supreme Court. He announced that it was a choice between “going backward and going forward.”

And despite senior aide David Plouffe arguing Wednesday that the president didn’t mention Romney’s “47 percent” remark because everyone already knows about it, Obama brought that line back in his big finish.

Change, he said, “certainly can’t happen if you’re willing to write off half the nation before you even take office. Now people forget back in 2008, 47 percent of the country didn’t vote for me, but on the night of the election, I said to all those Americans, I may not have won your vote but I hear your voice.”

“This election is your chance to make sure that does not happen,” he said.