WASHINGTON – President Obama made Mitt Romney’s day by declaring “the private sector is doing fine” and opening himself to the accusation that he – not the rich Republican – is the one who is out of touch with reality. Obama quickly clarified his remark Friday, but Republicans already had their teeth in it and weren’t letting go.

“Is he really that out of touch?” GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney asked as Obama’s initial comments ricocheted through the presidential campaign.

Seeking to head off any damage, Obama backpedaled and declared it is “absolutely clear that the economy is not doing fine.”

While there had been some “good momentum” in the private sector, Obama said, public sector growth lagged, making it imperative that Congress act on his proposals to hire more teachers and first-responders.

Obama’s original six-word sentence, even if taken out of context, amounted to an unforced political error. The economy is the single biggest issue on voters’ minds and a weak spot for him, given the nation’s 8.2 percent unemployment rate.

Nearly every day, Obama finds himself having to defend his stewardship of an economy that has struggled to recover from the 2008 economic downturn and pleading with voters to stick with him because, he says, Romney would pursue policies that led to the recession.

But Friday, Obama may have given his rival an opening. The former Massachusetts governor argued anew that Obama does not understand how to jump-start the economy and his agenda has thwarted the recovery.

Obama’s comments at a White House news conference were reminiscent of Republican nominee John McCain’s assertion in mid-September 2008 that the “fundamentals of our economy are strong,” just as the U.S. economy was melting down. Candidate Obama seized on those comments then. Now, as president, he was getting grief along similar lines.

Romney, holding a campaign event in Council Bluffs, Iowa, said Obama’s remark was “defining what it means to be detached and out of touch with the American people.” He said the comment “is going to go down in history as an extraordinary miscalculation and misunderstanding.”

But while “doing fine” is in the eye of the beholder, Obama was correct that the job picture in the private sector is brighter than in the public sector.

Since the recession officially ended in June 2009, private companies have added 3.1 million jobs. Largely because of cuts at the state and local level, governments have slashed 601,000 jobs over the same period.

According to the government, corporate profits have risen 58 percent since mid-2009.