The White House released the transcript of President Barack Obama's remarks at the home of Richard and Ellen Richman, who live in the exclusive Conyers Farm development in Greenwich's famed "back country'' neighborhood.
Conyers Farm is the 1,500-acre gated community where Republican Linda McMahon also lives. Her opponent, Democrat Richard Blumenthal, attended the dinner with the President at a 20-acre estate that was not far from McMahon's home.
The transcript is as follows:
7:52 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Well, listen, Richard and Ellen, I'm so grateful to you guys for opening up this extraordinary home.
And just a couple of quick acknowledgments. Obviously we've got races all across the country that are important, but there are very few races that are more important to me than the race for U.S. Senate here, and Dick Blumenthal I think is just an outstanding candidate who is going to be a terrific U.S. senator. (Applause.)
We've got Dan Malloy, who is going to be the next governor of Connecticut. (Applause.) And we've got somebody who is probably the only person who is putting in more miles than me -- Tim Kaine. (Applause.)
It is great to be here with some new friends, but also some old friends. Richard and Ellen were some of my earliest supporters. They actually supported me when I ran for United States Senate -- before people could pronounce my name. (Laughter.) And so for them to open up their house like this is just terrific.
I'm not going to give a long speech because I want to take the opportunity to sit with each of you and hear what you're thinking, answer your questions. But let me just say generally, we came into office back in January of 2009 at a historic time -- the worst financial crisis that we've seen since the Great Depression, on the verge of a Great Depression, in the midst of two wars. And so the challenges that we've confronted over these last two years have been extraordinary. And we've got a long way to go. This country received a body blow. And it was already having difficulties competitively. It was already falling behind educationally. We had a health care system that was broken, a middle class that hadn't seen its incomes or wages go up at the same time as their costs were skyrocketing for everything from college tuition to health care.
And so the recovery has been painfully slow. We've got millions of people who are still out of work, hundreds of thousands of people who've lost their homes. People are anxious about the future; they're fearful about the future. And we're in a very competitive environment, where other countries like China and India have now caught up -- in some indicators -- and are going to keep on moving because they are hungry and they've got some very talented people.