Mitt Romney made an impromptu swing by a Massachusetts body shop Thursday afternoon to again hammer President Obama over the president's suggestion last week that the success of private enterprises in the United States were dependent on public infrastructure and programs.
Republicans have seized on a moment during a town-hall speech last week where the president, discussing infrastructure like roads and highways, argued that "if you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen."
On Thursday, his Republican opponent blasted the president, arguing the pair had a fundamentally different idea of how the economy worked.
"It wasn't a gaffe. It was instead his ideology," Romney said.
The presumptive Republican nominee — in his home state for a morning visit to his campaign headquarters in Boston — insisted that the president believed "the collective" was responsible for the growth of business.
"The president does, in fact, believe that people who build enterprises like this really aren't responsible for it," Romney said. "But in fact it's a collective success of the whole society that somehow builds enterprises like this. My view, we have to celebrate people who started enterprises and employ other people."
The governor also hit his familiar refrain, accusing the president of targeting success.
"If you attack success, you'll continue to see what we've seen over these past three and a half years, and that's less success … I don't think the president by his comments suggests an understanding of what makes America such a great nation," Romney said.
Romney's remarks came hours after his campaign released a new commercial featuring the owner of a New Hampshire metal fabricating company.
"My father’s hands didn’t build this company? My hands didn’t build this company? My son’s hands aren’t building this company? Did somebody else take out the loan on my father’s house to finance the equipment? Did somebody else make payroll every week or figure out where it’s coming from?" the Romney supporter says in the ad.
The Obama campaign has accused the Romney team of ripping the president's remark out of context. In a Web video released Thursday, the campaign accuses the Republican challenger of "launching a false attack," and argued he would "say anything" to get elected.
