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President: Romney's Bain Record Is Fair Game

Mitt's job creation claims should be examined, says prez

By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff

Posted May 22, 2012 1:51 AM CDT | Updated May 22, 2012 2:20 AM CDT

(Newser) – President Obama isn't backing down from his attacks on Mitt Romney's record at Bain Capital. The focus on the private equity firm "is not a distraction. This is what this campaign is going to be about," he said at a press conference in Chicago yesterday. Romney's "main calling card for why he should be president is his business experience," said Obama. "When you're president, as opposed to the head of a private equity firm, then your job is not simply to maximize profits."

If "your main argument for how to grow the economy was: 'I knew how to make a lot of money for investors,' then you're missing what this job is about," he said, adding that he wasn't attacking private equity as a practice, calling it a "healthy part of the free market," Politico reports. Cory Booker—who called the Bain ads "nauseating" over the weekend—continued to backpedal yesterday, saying he now believes the attacks were fair game because Obama "was not condemning any particular firms. He was focusing in on a guy who is bragging about his job creation record."

President Obama exits Air Force One on his arrival at Joplin Regional Airport yesterday.
President Obama exits Air Force One on his arrival at Joplin Regional Airport yesterday.   (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
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Obama's latest ad looks at Bain's 1992 acquisition of office supply firm Ampad.   (BarackObamadotcom)

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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 185 comments
Yermal
May 22, 2012 8:54 PM CDT
By attacking Romney's business experience in Bain Capital, Obama is attacking the process of  private equity operation.  Business investors find companies which are in trouble and/or under-performing and try to turn them around to make them profitable.  They don't succeed in their efforts in all cases.  The Obama team is picking a few companies which could not survive either because they were using obsolete technology and/or facing strong competition from low-wage emerging countries. Using such cases, the Obama team is attacking Romney for job losses in those companies while ignoring job creation in majority of the companies which experienced successful turnaround because of Bain Capital. By using this campaign strategy, the Obama team is indirectly attacking the operation of private equity and its important role in the capitalist system. He seems to oppose job losses in any company under restructuring.  Hiring and firing is commonly practiced under this process.  Obama seems opposed to this practice and the closing of plants which cannot be turned around, as such measures create social problems. We expect him to come up with a new system which would not cause such social problems to workers and the community.     
ProbolyKnot
May 22, 2012 4:54 PM CDT
Romney claims to be full to the brim with business experience... and he claims to be able to easily fix the unemployment mess GWB made... that makes Romney's business performance open for judgement. Facts are facts... Romney is a vulture capitalist. He buys functional businesses, fires people (he likes that part), borrows money against the business, pays himself huge bonuses... and then either sells the business off for what he can get out of it... or lets it rot.
cornelison
May 22, 2012 4:11 PM CDT
Be careful what you wish for, Fox. So the mayor stirs up misinformation of what Mitt did at Bain. But guess what?  Now cable is talking about BAIN - the very thing Mitt doesn't want to talk about.  The more Bain is discussed on TV and in the media, the worse it is for mitt.
 

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