The Romney campaign continued pressing their “you didn’t build that” attacks on Wednesday, holding events with small business owners in Florida and 11 battleground states this morning.  The Romney campaign held events in Tampa and Palm Beach to allow “small business owners the opportunity to respond to President Obama’s insulting claim,” according to a Romney press release.

Meanwhile, the president’s Florida team was busy defending Obama against what they called “false attacks.”

“He believes that supporting entrepreneurs and small businesses are vital to creating an economy that’s built to last where hard work pays off and responsibility is rewarded,” OFA-FL Press Secretary Eric Jotkoff said in a memo today.

Obama’s new ad, “Always,” released late Tuesday, responds to criticism from Romney over comments the president made during a campaign stop July 13  Roanoke, Virginia, that implied small business owners don’t deserve full credit for their success. In the spot, which will run in Florida starting today, Obama stresses that the remarks were taken out of context.

“Those ads taking my words about small business out of context. They’re flat-out wrong. Of course Americans build their own businesses,” Obama says in the ad. “Every day, hard-working people sacrifice to meet a payroll, create jobs and make our economy run.”

“What I said was, we need to stand behind them, as America always has ,” Obama says, “by investing in education and training, roads and bridges, research and technology.”

Meanwhile, the Romney campaign sent the following release out today:

Hispanic small business owners in Florida today released the following statements in reaction to President Obama’s recent out-of-touch comments on American free enterprise:

“I take pride in my work to build my business, and that of my employees to grow it,” said Alexis Calleja, founding partner of Hudson & Calleja LLC, a boutique law firm in Florida. “I was insulted when I heard President Obama’s comment that, ‘If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made it happen.’ It is even more insulting when you think of the fact that, under this president, we have seen 41 consecutive months of an unemployment rate stuck above 8%. Of course, for our Hispanic community it is even worse at 11% and over 30% for young Latinos. Mr. President, I built my business, no one else did. I stand with Mitt Romney because his economic policies of less taxes and less regulation are what my business needs to succeed.”

“As a small business owner, I am offended that President Obama would denigrate the many hours of very hard work I put into building my business,” said Lou Ramos, of Value Enterprise Solutions in Florida. “Mr. President, with all due respect, I built my business with my own hands, and I don’t owe that to anybody else. In my state of Florida, as in the rest of the United States, small businesses are the engine behind job creation. We need a president who understands the impact we have on our national economy; someone who will cut our taxes, and remove the hurdles to our growth. Mitt Romney is that man; and that is why I am proud to support him.”

Tags | Barack Obama, Eric Jotkoff, Mitt Romney, small business