Mitt Romney hammered for "I'm also unemployed" quip

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was campaigning in Florida this morning when he said he wanted to tell his story, the New York Times reports - and added, "I'm also unemployed."

The candidate then reportedly chuckled, as did the eight people gathered around him.

Romney, who made hundreds of millions of dollars as a businessman before becoming Massachusetts governor - his net worth has been estimated around $200 million - was speaking to a group of unemployed Floridians when he made the comment.

Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Shultz quickly deemed the comment "inappropriate and insensitive to the millions of Americans looking for work."

"This comment shows that Mitt Romney - a man who wants for nothing and whose only occupation for more than four years has been to run for President - is incredibly out of touch with what's going on in our country and around the dinner tables of those who are out of work," she said.

Americans United for Change, meanwhile, called Romney an "out-of-touch hundred-millionaire" and sent reporters a photograph of a multi-million dollar Utah ski lodge he once owned.

Romney's quip follows his release of a web videoin which President Obama is portrayed as unconcerned with the plight of unemployed Americans. The video spotlights Mr. Obama's comments that recent poor jobs numbers reflected "bumps on the road" in the path toward recovery, and showed unemployed Americans saying they aren't bumps in the road.

Romney leads in polling of the Republican presidential contenders, and was seen as one of the winners of Monday night's GOP presidential debate. At the end of his appearance in Florida Thursday, Romney signaled that he wasn't taking anything for granted, joking that "I may be unemployed for longer than I'd like."