The Three Most Quotable Quotes from Obama's New York Fundraisers

President Barack Obama was joined by former President Bill Clinton at a trio of campaign fundraisers in New York Monday night, collecting at $3.6 million, according to The Associated Press, and offering these quotes in return.

President Barack Obama was joined by former President Bill Clinton at a trio of campaign fundraisers in New York Monday night, collecting at $3.6 million, according to The Associated Press, and offering these quotes in return.

Former President Bill Clinton, on the consequences of a Romney victory:

The alternative [to another Obama term] would be, in my opinion, calamitous for our country and the world. 

Clinton made this proclamation at the first gathering of the night, held at a private residence with 50 guests. His "calamitous" prediction was more extreme than any of the Obama's statements about what a Romney victory would mean.

Bill Clinton* on Obama's accomplishments and his belief that Communists don't exist:

[Obama has] had to get all this done while people as recently as last week were still saying he wasn't born in America. He's had to get all this done with a House of Representative that had one of the tea party members claim that 79 to 81 members of the Democratic Caucus were members of the Communist party. And neither the Republican nominee nor other Republican leaders rebuked him for saying that. 

This is not the 1950s. At least Joe McCarthy could skate on the premise that there were still one or two living Communists walking around. Nobody's seen a Communist in over a decade.

Clinton's remarks, via White House press pooler Tangi Quéméner of Agence France-Presse, were made on stage at the velvet-curtained Grand Ballroom at the Waldorf Astoria. Meanwhile, Jon Bon Jovi performed an acoustic version of "Living on a Prayer" and The Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun," surrounded by two large screens that displayed the words "Join Us" and "Obama-Biden."

President Obama, on George...I mean Mitt...Romney:

George Romney [audience laughs]...Governor Romney has had great success in his life and he's raised a beautiful family. But he has a theory about the economy that basically says, 'If I'm maximizing returns for my investors, for wealthy individuals like myself, then everybody's going to be better off.'

The President's "George Romney" slip-up, also via Quéméner, occurred at the New Amsterdam Theater, in front of 1,700 people.

* Correction: This post originally incorrectly attributed Bill Clinton's remarks about communists to Jon Bon Jovi.