Romney pounces on Obama comment about government role

IRWIN, Pa. -- A fiery Mitt Romney accused President Barack Obama on Tuesday of believing the government is more vital to a thriving economy than the nation's workers and dreamers, scrambling to get back on message by declaring of Obama, "I'm convinced he wants Americans to be ashamed of success."

The new Romney approach came as Democrats, and some Republicans, pressed Romney to release more of his tax returns. The Democrats also hounded the Republican candidate over discrepancies about when he left his private equity firm. The conservative magazine National Review urged Romney to release more of his tax records.

Obama has been trying to keep Romney focused on matters other than the sluggish economy, even releasing a single-shot TV ad yesterday that suggests Romney gamed the system so well that he may not have paid any taxes at all for years.

As the campaign's tenor grew combative, Romney seized on Obama's comments last week in Virginia. The president, making a point about the government's supportive rolein building the nation, said in part: "Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen."

Later, Obama added: "The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together."

The challenger pounced.

"To say that Steve Jobs didn't build Apple, that Henry Ford didn't build Ford Motors, that Papa John didn't build Papa John Pizza . . . To say something like that, it's not just foolishness," Romney said from a campaign rally outside Pittsburgh. "It's insulting to every entrepreneur, every innovator in America." He added, "I tell you this: I'm convinced that he wants Americans to be ashamed of success."

The Obama campaign said Romney had distorted Obama's message by taking him out of context. Obama's intended point was that government plays a role in helping people and businesses succeed by building roads, hiring teachers and firefighters, and looking out for the public good.

"There are some things we do better together," Obama said in San Antonio at the start of a lucrative fundraising day in Texas. "We rise or fall as one nation. That's what I believe. That's what our history tells us. That's what our future demands. That's why I'm running for a second term as president of the United States."