Walt Shapiro (New Republic) asks - "Does Romney's Bain Record Matter?"

[HughBeaumont]

http://news.yahoo.com/romney-s-record-at-bain-capital--does-it-matter-.html

The issue will be the bane of our existence until November. Here it is only May – and the back-and-forth over Mitt Romney’s career in private equity at Bain Capital is already as confused as Facebook’s initial stock offering. Buffeted by TV ads, web videos, feigned outraged and zigzagging Democrats, voters undoubtedly are stunned by the sudden outbreak of high-decibel arguments over Romney’s business career.

But do these even matter? Amongst the background noise emerges the real question: What parts of Romney’s business experience would influence his actions in the Oval office? That is a central question that voters should evaluate, although finding the answers will not be easy given the frenzied spin from both sides.

(snip)

This is who Romney is -- a portrait in business success rather than selfless altruism. Coming out of that experience, Romney’s underlying problem with voters appears to be his inability to make the imaginative leap to grasp how other people live. In late April, Romney urged Ohio college students to follow their dreams: “Take a shot, go for it, take a risk. Get the education. Borrow money, if you have to, from your parents. Start a business.” These are laudable sentiments, except for one tin-ear detail: Most American families do not have a bankroll of, say, $50,000 or $100,000 sitting on the sidelines waiting to be loaned to the first child ready to launch a new business.

(snip)

This process of elimination inevitably leads back to Bain Capital. What matters is not Bain’s job-creation record but the values that Romney absorbed on the job. Romney’s belief in the creative destruction of capitalism, his conviction that a dynamic economy produces winners and, yes, losers would undoubtedly shape his presidency. That is his economic vision – and it is directly linked to his years at Bain.

Oh fuck off, Walt . . . it does SO matter. Government is not a business nor should it be run as such. Two different animals entirely despite every GOP idiot from here to K Street thinking America would be so much better off. We've seen this tragedy before for eight years and look what ruin it caused. An insincere and tone-deaf joker like Rmoney would be no different since at Bain, he won whether the company won OR lost. The loads of corporate-fattened cronies he'd stack his cabinet with, as Bewsh 43 did, would profit handsomely while social programs get gutted.

[elleng]

1. Not only it 'should' not be run as such, it CANNOT be run as such.

[HughBeaumont]

2. It especially cannot be run like a Bain Acquisition.

Again, look at what happened when the last person tried it . . .

Borrowed billions and billions.
Made the "company" (i.e. US) responsible for the debt, not him.
Borrowed even more for war; the cronies took a windfall cut.
Corporations and the wealthy, given tax break after tax break, squeezed as much productivity out of existing workers as they could while firing millions more.
Bewsh, his cronies, his SEC, his CIA, his DEA, his DHS and his PentaSewer get away with their crimes scot-free.

The more things change . . .

[lumberjack_jeff]

4. Yes. Exactly.

Leveraged buyout, extract dividend from the company by selling business assets then hand the mess to someone who'll take the blame for the loss.

It's the GWB business model 2.0.

[lumberjack_jeff]

3. Did business experience shape Hoover's actions? Bush Jr's?

Can't have it both ways. Romney has been touting his executive experience for many years. He can't shut off that faucet now that it's become apparent that he made his wealth by "investing" workers retirement funds in a car elevator for one of his mansions.

[EC]

5. Ok,

how about we switch to his record as governor for a little while...of course we'll go back to Bain, but whatever.

[gratuitous]

6. Yes it does

The clincher for me is that while businesses can pick and choose their customers (We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone), government has to provide services to everyone, even the loser creeps who aren't worth a quarter billion dollars. I don't think Mr. Romney has the first clue about how to do that, and his record at Bain, as Shapiro notes, certainly doesn't support any argument to the contrary.

[rustydog]

7. Everything in Romney's life is fair game. It shows the presence or absence of character

it shows his compassion or lack of it,( Dog on roof of car for 1200 miles, bankrupting companies, firing the people and selling the shell for salvage....
Yes Bain Capital is fair game plain and simple.

[hifiguy]

8. This reminds me of an exchange in M*A*S*H.

The MPs are about to haul Frank Burns away and Hawkeye and B.J. come strolling along as Frank protests.

Hawkeye: "Sergeant, I'd vouch for this man's character if he had any."

Frank: "SNOT! SNOT!! SNOT!!"

Cast the Obama campaign in the role of Hawkeye. I think we all know who Frank is.

[spanone]

9. does Obama's last three years as President matter? what horseshit.