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Romney responds to Obama's 'bulls*****r' remark

The Romney campaign has responded to President Barack Obama's off-the-cuff remark to Rolling Stone that Romney is a "bullsh*****r."  Romney campaign adviser
Mitt Romney at a campaign stop earlier this week. (AP)
Mitt Romney at a campaign stop earlier this week.

The Romney campaign has responded to President Barack Obama's off-the-cuff remark to Rolling Stone that Romney is a "bullsh*****r."  Romney campaign adviser Kevin Madden said that kind of language from the president is a sign of desperation.

"President Obama is rattled and on the defensive... He's running on empty and has nothing left but attacks and insults," said Madden. "It's unfortunate he has to close the final days of the campaign this way."

Speaking outside a steel company in Worthington, Ohio, Romney himself slammed his opponent for a "diminished" campaign:

Now, the President has a different agenda. Instead of an agenda about big things like good jobs and take home pay, he has an agenda about smaller and smaller and smaller things. He wants to talk about protecting characters on Sesame Street and then word games—silly word games. And of course, he spends a lot of time attacking me. Attacking me is not an agenda for America's future and that's why his campaign is having a hard time.

In an interview with Rolling Stone set to hit newsstands on Nov. 8, Obama sat down with presidential historian Douglas Brinkley. Following the interview, Brinkley recorded a conversation between Rolling Stone's executive editor, Eric Bates, and the president.

According to Brinkley:

We arrived at the Oval Office for our 45-minute interview… on the morning of October 11th.As we left the Oval Office, executive editor Eric Bates told Obama that he had asked his six-year-old if there was anything she wanted him to say to the president. … [S]he said, ‘Tell him: You can do it.’Obama grinned. ‘You know, kids have good instincts,’ Obama offered. ‘They look at the other guy and say, 'Well, that’s a bullsh---er, I can tell.'

Obama's campaign advisers have linked the president's remarks to larger campaign issues. White House communications director Dan Pfieffer told reporters Thursday that people shouldn't get "distracted by the word," and that the comment highlights trust issues with Romney's candidacy.

Brinkley was a guest on CBS's This Morning and discussed the nature of the name-calling in the 2012 election. "We could go through [history] and find good and bad relationships; this is not one that has a whole lot of mutual respect," he said.

He equated the president's language with another frequent word he's said on the stump. "It's another part of Romnesia, I suppose," Brinkley said. "The working man's Romnesia is BS-er."