General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Oh, "Managing Member of Bain in 2002 Mitt Romney," you are SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO screwed. [View all]JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)he, as Ed Conard suggests, lent his name to Bain.
The question is did Romney have a conflict of interest between his job at Bain which was lending his name to the company (officially serving as a managing partner as far as those who dealt with the company might know) and his running for and then taking office as head of the Olympics and then governor of Massachusetts.
This brings to mind the situation with Cheney. He had worked for Halliburton and apparently continued to have contacts with Halliburton, a major federal government contractor which increased its business with the US during Cheney's time as Vice President.
Halliburton as everyone learned from the BP spill is involved in the oil business in various ways (although as far as I know not an oil producer itself). Remember the secret meeting that Cheney had with the oil companies in the early months of Cheney's time as VP? Remember how access to records of that meeting are being withheld to this day from public view?
That's what conflicts of interest do. They make it profitable for companies to buy politicians or political offices.
This is corruption. And it suggests that if Romney were to become president, he might make the corruption of the Nixon, Bush II and Obama administrations look like child's play. And let's face it there is corruption in Obama's administration too. It just isn't as widespread as in other administrations.