Mitt Romney often assails “career politicians,” contrasting his career in private business with the political career of his chief rival Rick Perry.

“Career politicians got us into this mess and they simply don’t know how to get us out,” Romney said on August 30 in a speech in Perry’s home state of Texas. “Unlike career politicians who’ve never met a payroll,” he wrote in his September 6 op-ed in USA Today, “I know why jobs come and go.” The next day at the GOP debate, Romney said that career politics is a “fine profession,” but that his own experience in the private sector prepares him better for the presidency.