The Romney campaign’s strange response to Bain attacks

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/the-romney-campaigns-strange-response-to-bain-attacks/2012/05/14/gIQAnBSDPU_blog.html

Posted at 02:11 PM ET, 05/14/2012 TheWashingtonPost The Romney campaign’s strange response to Bain attacks

By Greg Sargent

Today, the Obama campaign began airing an ad attacking Mitt Romney over layoffs at Bain Capital, which the Obama team is holding up as emblematic of Romney’s economic philosophy. Byron York reports that the Romney campaign has settled on a line of pushback — compare what Romney did at Bain to what Obama did with the auto companies.

“Few remember today how many (non-union) workers lost their jobs in the Obama administration’s handling of the matter,” York writes of the Romney camp’s counterargument. York adds: “in the auto bailouts, whatever else one thinks of them, Barack Obama pushed for downsizing and laying people off in a failing business he had taken over.”

If this is indeed the comparison the Romney campaign plans to pursue, it’s a curious one. After all, Obama didn’t personally profit when he bailed out the auto companies. By contrast, Bain walked away with at least $12 million in profits after its episode involving GST Steel, the company that is the subject of Obama’s ads. More broadly, Jon Chait notes: “Romney’s career produced huge gains for owners of capital, and the auto bailout forced them to swallow huge losses.”

Beyond this, what’s really curious about this counterattack is that it only helps underscore the philosophical difference between the two that the Obama campaign is trying to highlight with the Bain attacks.

[GoCubsGo]

1. He's really going there?

This is the asshole who wanted the whole industry to die, and is on record for saying so. And, he's criticizing the President because a handful of jobs were lost with the bail-out, while millions would be unemployed had he gotten his way? Is this a joke?

[catbyte]

3. I heard a clip last night of Romney doing just that.

[safeinOhio]

2. Hard to spin a large mountain. n/t

[Scuba]

4. I love the smell of Republican desperation in the morning.

[KurtNYC]

5. Romney is one of those corporate suit guys who is used to being inside the bubble

of his own BS.

That's why he makes those needling remarks like "these cookies are from 7/11" and "you really spent the big bucks" on those $2 NASCAR raincoats -- because in the corporate world when the boss says that stuff the underlings laugh and nobody tells him he is an asshole and not funny. In the corporate world you can say total nonsense like "my campaign is not run by lobbyists" or "I have never been to Washington" and people around you would call that 'leadership.'

These types surround themselves with sycophants and turbo charge their own group think. I'm going to guess that no one on team Romney could stand up and say 'wait, if we say Detroit, they will hit us with 'let detroit go bankrupt' again.'

Classic corporate-style group think.

[gkhouston]

6. ^^ This. n/t

[FSogol]

9. +1 n/t

[SDjack]

7. Rmoney may stinking too bad to be nominated at the convention.

The Obama campaign should back off a little. Once he is nominated, then "Bain" him.

[NNN0LHI]

8. Nope he is the best they have

Hit them hard and hit them early is the way to go.

Don

[deacon]

10. A twisted bunch of gibberish. Yowza.