So he’s going to focus on Romney’s wildly successful business career which is probably the reason most people will vote for him? Good luck with that.

(MSNBC) — President Obama offered a full-throated defense of his campaign’s scrutiny of Mitt Romney’s private sector career, flatly stating, “This is not a distraction.”

The president, speaking to reporters in Chicago at the conclusion of a NATO summit there, said that it’s perfectly fair to pore through Romney’s record at Bain Capital, the private equity firm he had cofounded, since the former Massachusetts governor had made his private sector experience a cornerstone of his campaign.

“This is not a distraction. This is what this campaign is going to be about,” Obama said.

The president said that he thought that private equity played an important role in the economy. (Republicans have noted that Obama’s re-election campaign hasn’t always been shy in soliciting contributions from individuals in that industry.) But Obama also argued that the primary role for those firms is to deliver a return for investors.

“If your main argument for how to grow the economy is that I knew how to make a lot of money for investors, then you’re missing what this job is about,” the president said.