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President Obama slipped up on Friday when he remarked that the private sector was “doing fine” during a meeting with reporters in the White House briefing room. On the Today show Monday, Nation Editor at Large Chris Hayes and blogger Meghan McCain hashed out the real severity of the gaffe, the backlash from Romney and their opposing view of the recent leaks of national security information. For more on the state of the recovery, read Bryce Covert’s “Romney’s All Wrong on Public Sector Employment.”

—Zoë Schlanger