If the Republicans have their way, President Obama's suddenly famous comment that "the private sector is doing fine" is bound for the history books.
The GOP and its presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, figure to echo the statement for the rest of the campaign -- in speeches, videos, and Tweets -- claiming that Obama doesn't really understand the nation's economic problems.
"For the president of the United States to stand up and say the private sector is doing fine is going to go down in history," Romney said. "It's an extraordinary miscalculation and misunderstanding by a President who is out of touch."
Obama, who says Romney and the Republicans are the ones who don't understand the middle class, made the comment while explaining that most of the nation's unemployment problem is in the public sector.
"We've created 4.3 million jobs over the last 27 months, over 800,000 just this year alone," Obama said. "The private sector is doing fine. Where we're seeing weaknesses in our economy have to do with state and local government."
As the Republicans pounced on that middle comment, Obama later sought to clarify matters.
The president told reporters "the economy is not doing fine," but "we've actually seen some good momentum in the private sector." And he challenged Republicans to come up with better ideas to create jobs.
Of course, making political hay out of a botched comment is part of campaigning.
Four years ago, in the midst of a near-meltdown of the financial system, Obama and his aides roasted opponent John McCain for saying "the fundamentals of our economy are strong."
This year, Obama has roasted Romney for his primary statement that "corporations are people."
As he sought to dig out from his "fine" comment, Obama said the real question for both parties should be their economic plans.
"One of the things that people get so frustrated about," he said,"is that instead of actually talking about what would help, we get wrapped up in these political games."