Romney: Obama's ‘you didn't build that' comment ‘wasn't a gaffe'

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ROXBURY, Mass.—For the third day in a row, Mitt Romney attacked President Obama's "you didn't build that" comment, arguing the president's words weren't an accident but rather a reflection of his hostility toward private business.

"It wasn't a gaffe. It was his ideology," Romney argued Thursday at a last-minute campaign stop at Middlesex Truck and Coach, a small truck repair shop just outside Boston. "I don't think the president understands what makes this country great."

Speaking against the backdrop of more than a dozen mechanics, Romney pointed to the repair shop as a symbol of the businesses that have kept the American dream alive.

"This is the kind of place that has put people to work over the years, over the decades. … Someone else isn't responsible for what he did here," Romney said, referring to the shop's owner. "This is not the result of government. This is the result of people who take risks, create dreams, who build for themselves and for their families."

Romney insisted Obama's comments suggest he doesn't really understand how business works. And he pointed to a new report showing more Americans sought unemployment last week as more proof that Obama doesn't deserve a second term.

Echoing comments he made in Ohio Wednesday, Romney cited Obama's inactive jobs council, which hasn't held a meeting in six months, and contrasted that with the president's busy fundraising schedule.

"You learn something about the president's priorities," Romney said. "The job he's interested in protecting is his own."

Romney's Roxbury stop was his only public event of the day—and it was added at the last minute, as his campaign seeks to regain the advantage after days of Democratic attacks over the GOP candidate's record at Bain Capital.