CONCORD, N.H. — Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said on Monday that Standard & Poor’s downgrade of America’s credit rating was not just President Barack Obama‘s fault, stepping back a bit from a statement he issued Friday.

Mitt Romney (AP Photo/Jay LaPrete)

“I don’t think it’s simply the president’s fault,” Mr. Romney said in reply to a question at a Chamber of Commerce meeting here. “I’m sure there are many people to share responsibility for the excessive spending in Washington over the past couple of decades.”

But Mr. Romney said the president should have found a way “to work with Republicans, to work with Democrats to establish a relationship of trust to determine what can and couldn’t be done politically.” And he added that Mr. Obama “is primarily for responsible for the failure of this economy to re-ignite.”

He also suggested he was referring to Republicans of years’ past, not the crop of tea party-leaning freshmen elected in 2010.

Also on Monday, Mr. Romney released another statement contrasting S&P’s rating for Massachusetts while he was governor and its handling of the U.S. rating under Mr. Obama, and sought to link the president with one-term Democratic President Jimmy Carter. “The president’s failure to put the nation’s fiscal and economic house in order has caused a massive loss of confidence that resulted in an embarrassing downgrade, ” he said. “In the Carter era, it was called ‘malaise.’ Under President Obama, it’s called meltdown.”

On Friday, Mr. Romney squarely blamed Mr. Obama for the downgrade, issuing a short statement: