Mitt Romney said Tuesday that the president has shown this week "just how out of touch he is" with the country.
"He's had a number of very revealing comments that show just how out of touch he is," he told Fox News, offering as examples President Obama's response to a question this week on the healthcare reform act's effect on small businesses and the president's statement last Friday that the private sector is "doing just fine."
Romney's comments illustrate how his campaign is sinking teeth into the "doing fine" comment, which Obama was forced to clarify a few hours later by saying the economy overall is clearly not "fine."
But it had already provided Romney's campaign the opportunity to charge Obama with being "out of touch" with average Americans, a charge the Obama campaign has previously used against Romney, and one that Romney repeated several times this week.
According to Romney, the president offered another "revealing" moment in an interview with an Iowa NBC News affiliate TV station last week, when he said "the only folks that have been impacted, in terms of the healthcare bill, are insurance companies."
Romney, who has campaigned on his promise to repeal the healthcare reform legislation known as "ObamaCare," noted that a U.S. Chamber of Commerce poll from earlier this year found that three-quarters of small businesses surveyed said the legislation is an impediment to job creation.
He also noted that the net worth of the average family has fallen since 2007 to median levels last marked in the early 1990s.
"That's why the idea of selecting, as a campaign slogan, 'Forward,' is so absurd," he continued. "The president needs to go out and talk to people, not just do fundraisers."
Romney went on to suggest the president is "out of touch" on private enterprise, referring to the Obama campaign's attacks on Romney's own private business experience at private equity firm Bain Capital. The Obama campaign has mostly moved on to Romney's record as governor of Massachusetts after strong pushback on the Bain Capital attacks from members of their own party.
But the Obama campaign has also charged Romney with a lack of support for increasing federal support for police officers, firefighters and teachers in communities.
Romney, again using the word "absurd" to describe Obama's positions, said those groups are and should be hired "at the local level and also by states" and what he opposes is "another stimulus."
