Romney hammers 'you didn't build that' in new web ad
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Mitt Romney's campaign kept up the drumbeat of criticism Thursday over President Obama's "you didn't build that" gaffe, releasing a scathing web ad in which a New Hampshire business owner says: "President Obama, you're killing us out here."
The ad, released Thursday morning, sustains what has been a weeklong theme for the Romney campaign. Echoing the Republican candidate's recent criticism on the stump, the video hammers the president for suggesting this past Friday that business owners owe their success to government.
The video features Jack Gilchrist, owner of Gilchrist Metal Fabricating Company, and shows him getting ready for work at dawn while Obama's words play in the background.
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"If you've been successful, you didn't get there on your own. ... I'm always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart," the president says, as the ad shows Gilchrist saying goodbye to his family and heading off to work. "If you've got a business -- you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen."
The ad then cuts to an incredulous Gilchrist, who asks: "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?
"President Obama, you're killing us out here. Through hard work and a little bit of luck, we built this business. Why are you demonizing us for it? We are the solution, not the problem."
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The ad closes with quotes from Romney's campaign speech in Pennsylvania earlier this week in which he criticized the president's remarks.
Obama's campaign, though, fired back with a web video of its own Thursday accusing Romney of launching a "false attack."
It showed Romney reading the selected "you didn't build that" quote, then said: "That's not what he said."
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It went on to show a fuller clip of Obama talking about how entrepreneurs got help from teachers and others along the way -- interspersing quotes of Romney talking about similar themes.
"Mitt Romney will say anything," the ad says.
Obama later fired up a crowd in Florida Thursday afternoon, accusing Romney and his fellow Republicans of trying to claim the economic slump is "all Obama's fault."
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"That's basically their message," he said. "They can't hide the fact it's not a plan to create jobs. ... They don't have a plan to revive the middle class.
"They don't have a plan, and I do," Obama said.
Democrats have accused the GOP candidate of trying to distract from other controversies -- namely his refusal to release more than two years' worth of tax returns, and questions about when he left private equity firm Bain Capital.
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The Obama campaign called Romney's latest attacks "off the deep-end" and "over the top," arguing the president's comments were taken out of context.
The Romney campaign is not letting up, turning its criticism into a multi-platform message. The campaign is now selling shirts on its website that say: "I built my business, Mr. President."
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