It's not surprising that the President wants to make the election about Mitt Romney's largely successful time in the private equity business. The President doesn't want to - indeed, cannot afford to - make the 2012 election about his record. He has to make it about Mitt Romney. After three and a half years, with a stimulus that failed to do what his economic advisors promised it would and an incredibly unpopular health care overhaul to his record, Barack Obama is going to do his best to make the election not about his own record, but about the successful private business experiences of his rival.
In a statement, the Romney campaign responded:
President Obama confirmed today that he will continue his attacks on the free enterprise system... President Obama refuses to accept moral responsibility for his failed policies.
It remains to be seen if this will work. All of us beltway insider types think that attacks like this are futile, that Americans will be able to see through this. But it's an attack that Romney might be vulnerable to. Newt Gingrich clearly thought so when he went after Romney for the same reason.