Evan McGlinn for The New York TimesMitt Romney at the Middlesex Truck & Coach factory on Thursday in Roxbury, Mass.BOSTON — On the campaign trail it is known as “bracketing” — when a representative of the opposition tries to sully the message of a stage-managed rally.
Mitt Romney’s staff members proved masters of the practice during the Republican primary race, lurking to speak with reporters after speeches by Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum.
On Thursday, Mr. Romney got the same treatment when two Democratic politicians from Boston tried to counter his visit to a small business here, where he attacked President Obama once again for his “you didn’t build it” remark.
“When the president said if you’ve got a business you didn’t build it,” Mr. Romney said, standing beside Brian Maloney, 69, who runs a bus and truck repair shop in the Roxbury neighborhood, “come here and talk to Brian.”
On the sidewalk, Tito Jackson, a city councilman representing Roxbury, said that as Massachusetts governor, Mr. Romney had done little to help businesses in the area, which is largely black and Hispanic.
“I’m very happy that former Governor Romney found his way here,’’ Mr. Jackson said. “But you know what, he didn’t create jobs when he was governor. He didn’t find himself in this community that often. And now we as people — Roxbury — we know you, Mitt Romney. We know you.’’
Mr. Romney, of course, was not making a serious play to win deep-blue Massachusetts in November. He was using the backdrop of a successful small business, Middlesex Trucking & Coach, to hammer Mr. Obama on the economy.
“This is a day where we received some news that is not encouraging,’’ Mr. Romney said. “Jobless claims are up in this country again and consumer confidence has now shown the third straight month of decline. That is a record that has not been matched since 2008.’’
And for a third straight day, Mr. Romney attacked the president for remarks he made about the debt that entrepreneurs owe to government for investments in education and roads.
“Now I know that some people think what the president said was just a gaffe,’’ Mr. Romney said. “It wasn’t a gaffe. It was instead his ideology.’’
He seemed to be responding to a statement by the Obama campaign earlier in the day that Mr. Romney had taken the president’s comment out of context. Speaking at a firehouse in Virginia last week about the support that entrepreneurs receive from society, Mr. Obama said: “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.’’
It is unclear if the president’s “that” referred to roads and bridges, or to businesses. But to Mr. Romney there was no doubt the phrase revealed a basic difference in their philosophies: rugged individualism vs. mutual dependence.
“The president does, in fact, believe that people who build enterprises like this really aren’t responsible for it,’’ he said, standing in a truck bay and using a Craftsman tool box for a lectern. “That, in fact, it’s a collective success of the whole society that someone builds enterprises like this.’’
Mr. Maloney, in business since 1980, was an ideal embodiment of Mr. Romney’s message. “I take umbrage at the suggestion that people don’t start and build businesses,’’ he said. “I started out with 50 bucks and worked with my hands to afford grad school at night. My wife supported me.’’
He said government had not helped, and only brought complicated regulations. “It’s overbearing,” he said.
But Felix G. Arroyo, an at-large member of the Boston City Council, speaking in front of several dozen chanting demonstrators, cited Mr. Romney’s record of job creation as governor, when Massachusetts ranked 47th in the nation over his four years in office.
“The facts of his leadership of our state do not speak to him as a job creator,’’ he said.
Mr. Jackson, the councilman, cited a remark of Mr. Romney’s reported by The Boston Herald in 1994, that private investors do not think of backing businesses in inner-city Roxbury or nearby Dorchester. “Why do we never think about it? Crime,’’ Mr. Romney was quoted saying.
(On the defensive about it the next day, he said he would encourage investors to seek out the neighborhoods).
“If he didn’t have the vision for turning around Roxbury then,’’ Mr. Jackson said, “how is he going to have that vision when he’s president?’’
While showing Mr. Romney around his company, Mr. Maloney looked out a window at the protesters and said: “We’ve done a lot for the neighborhood. It’s a shame those people are out there.’’
“Oh, that’s the nature of politics,’’ Mr. Romney responded, according to a pool reporter. “There are always two teams. We’re always bothering each other’s teams.’’
