Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney knocked President Obama’s political resume Saturday, saying the former senator should have served a stint as a governor instead of leaping straight into the presidency.

Speaking in Weatherly, Pa., the latest stop in his six-state Midwestern battleground tour, Romney appeared to misspeak, accidentally referring to Obama as a former governor.

{mosads}”He upon becoming governor — excuse me, president last time,” Romney said, according to media reports.

Romney than used the gaffe to his advantage, saying that a gubernatorial stretch might have provided Obama with the proper experience needed to govern.

“Governor might have been a better job for him to have started with,” Romney joked.

“I say that because I actually think you learn from experience. I think it helps to have been in business before you actually start to run something in government. And then after you’ve done something in government, it helps to start perhaps a little lower level before you become president,” he added. 

Romney’s own record as former governor of Massachusetts has been a target of attacks from the Obama campaign, which claims Romney had a poor record on job creation in the state and that his policies would not work in Washington either. 

The Obama team has released a series of ads hammering Romney’s gubernatorial record in key swing states, concluding of his record: “It didn’t work then. It won’t work now.”

Romney’s team for its part argues that Obama is seeking to distract voters from his own economic policies. 

“President Obama has overseen trillion-dollar deficits, soaring national debt and the first credit downgrade in history. Mitt Romney, on the other hand, closed a $3 billion budget shortfall, balanced four budgets, left a $2 billion rainy day fund and received a credit rating upgrade,” Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said earlier in the week in response to an Obama ad blasting “Romney Economics.”