Did the Bain Attacks Have a Lasting Effect on Romney?

[ProSense]

Did the Bain Attacks Have a Lasting Effect on Romney?

Elspeth Reeve

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On Mitt Romney's campaign website, there are at least 10 pages tagged "Bain Capitol," but zero pages tagged "Bain Capital" -- the way you actually spell the name of the firm where Romney made his fortune -- and, while people who blog in typo-strewn houses shouldn't throw dictionaries, it's telling that one of Romney's signature achievements is such a small part of his campaign that his aides haven't noticed the misspelling. He's been running for president for a year! If Romney were talking about one of his most important qualifications for the job more often, you'd think someone would have noticed.

Romney talked about his business experience a lot more in the few months after he announced he was running for president in June 2011. He considered his business experience such a winner that he promises to hire more people who had resumes like his. "In a Cabinet, I would hope that people had worked in the private sector for at least half of their careers," Romney said in New Hampshire on June 26, 2011. He talked about his business record with a selling point you don't hear as much anymore, that he was a turnaround artist. "When it gets all totaled up, on a net-net basis we helped create tens of thousands of jobs… We invested in some settings where businesses were heading down in a big way. Sometimes you have to carry out surgery to turn them around." Later, in September, Romney said, "what I do is what the country needs… I do turnarounds."

His 2010 book No Apology -- the kind of book people publish when they're about to run for president -- defended what Bain did in detail. "Creative destruction is unquestionably stressful - on workers, managers, owners, bankers, suppliers, customers, and the communities that surround the affected businesses," Romney says, but it makes society more innovative. What if we tried to save farm jobs by outlawing plows?

But Romney doesn't really talk about that these days. The most recent instance was when his wife told a North Carolina TV station last week that her husband is "a turnaround guy. He's turned around companies. He's turned around the Olympics. He turned around the state of Massachusetts." But there's a difference between having that case made by Ann Romney -- who as his spouse, is pretty unassailable -- and by Romney himself. Searching the campaign's press releases finds that every Bain-related email in the last few months has been a counter-attack to an Obama attack. ("THE BIG BAIN BACKFIRE" read one subject line on May 15.) In an ad released June 1, Romney says that Obama failed to launch an economic "turnaround," and explains his business experience in very vague terms: "I can tell you that my experience in the economy tells me how it is businesses make decisions to hire people in America. I want to use that knowledge to get Americans working again."

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http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2012/07/did-bain-attacks-have-lasting-effect-romney/54972/

"Bain Capitol"

[global1]

1. What Do You Think - Will There Be A Second Round Of Bain Attacks On Rmoney?.....nt

[ProSense]

2. I think

"What Do You Think - Will There Be A Second Round Of Bain Attacks On Rmoney?....."

...Bain is going away.

Axelrod: ‘When It Comes To Secrecy, Mitt Takes The Gold!’

Obama campaign senior adviser David Axelrod, referring to an ABC News story on records of Mitt Romney’s leadership of the 2002 Olympics, tweeted this morning:

David Axelrod✔
@davidaxelrod

Tax returns. Bundlers. Bain. MA records & now key docs from Olympics. When it comes to secrecy, Mitt takes the gold! abcn.ws/NrkDBu

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/axelrod-when-it-comes-to-secrecy-mitt-takes

[Zyzafyx]

3. They will if Obama keeps them up relentlessly

That's the only way to "persuade" this country. And fuck the hand-wringing from Kathleen Parker and David Brooks!