Mitt Romney has spent the past couple of weeks arguing that the presidential campaign has drifted too far from the "issues that matter." Two weeks ago, this meant downplaying the significance of the mission that killed Osama bin Laden, and last week, it was marriage equality and his "youthful indiscretions" that were characterized as distractions.
The Republican said he wanted the focus to be on jobs and the economy. As of this morning, the "be careful what you wish for" adage comes to mind.
The Obama campaign unveiled this two-minute long video this morning, along with the launch of a new website: RomneyEconomics.com. It marks a new offensive, in which President Obama's re-election team is highlighting Romney's record of orchestrating mass layoffs and the significance of the underlying "business philosophy" the Republican displayed at his private-equity firm, Bain Capital.
This is not just a web video -- the above ad is a trimmed-down version of a six-minute video, and it's slated to air in Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Colorado.
If the message seems familiar, it's because campaign watchers heard plenty about this during the Republican primaries, when Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, and others targeted Romney for his callous, anti-worker "vulture" capitalism. Indeed, this has been a lingering issue for Romney for quite a while -- in 2004, then-rival Mike Huckabee said, "I want to be a president who reminds you of the guy you work with, not the guy who laid you off."
We know, of course, that these criticisms did not derail Romney's primary campaign, but the message is more likely to resonate with a broader, national audience than with GOP voters exclusively.
It also underscores one of the great ironies of the 2012 campaign: voters consider job creation the nation's #1 issue, and arguably Mitt Romney's weakest issue and biggest vulnerability is ... job creation.
When we think about Romney's record on jobs, the natural focus is on his tenure as governor, when he had a chance to put his job-creation know-how to good use. Regrettably, his efforts didn't work in Massachusetts, and his state's record on job creation was "one of the worst in the country," ranking 47th out of 50 states in job growth. It's one of the reasons Romney left office after one term deeply unpopular with his constituents.
But with Romney generally content to pretend his one term in office simply never occurred, and focusing almost exclusively on his private-sector background, his habit of making millions from companies by laying off their workers is politically problematic, to put it mildly.
What's more, Democrats have some partisan cover on this -- while the Romney campaign will almost certainly push back against this offensive by insisting that Obama's criticisms are some kind of "attack on capitalism," the fact remains that the president's new tack isn't much different than what Gingrich and Perry were saying a few months back.
Politico said the push casts Romney as "a greedy, job-killing corporate titan with little concern for the working class." That's true, but the president's campaign can back up that characterization with ample evidence, all of which makes the Republican look pretty bad.
Romney has spent the last year urging voters to focus on his business record. Team Obama appears eager to oblige.
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YEAH BABY!!!
take the fight TO WILLARD!!
offense
offense
offense
Ya and you should have heard the whining and caterwauling on Mourning Joe.
How dare they.....
What? tell a true story .
This from the same people who kept their pie holes shut all through the Swift Boating of Kerry with demonstrable lies in 04.
This from the same people who kept their pie holes shut all through the Jeramya Wright and Aires' Palli' around with terrorists BS.
To quote Jon Stewart Wha , WHAAAAAAA.
Democrats finally play tough . More like this
Yeah I heard Scarborough whining about the new ad. And you'll notice that when someone has a different point of view,he tries to intimidate them by shouting them down.
And I am sick of his shouting and interrupting anyone (especially Mika) that disagrees with him. He is a boar! It is hard to argue facts Joe!!!
They can't try and put us in our place anymore because we know where our place is. Right smack dab in the middle of all this, We will occupy their space and their minds if need be. Our place is everywhere and that is where we intend to go.
Carp if you will, but from 6 to 9 AM MSNBC is the only place you will see the People That Matter appear to discuss politics. You will also notice that many of the guests confess that they watch the show every morning.
That said, yes, Joe is a right wing activist, disguised as a 'fair and balance' critic of his party. And Mika is a knee jerk liberal (with a pedigree), and BOTH are playing roles that corporate assigns. It is, after all, about eyeballs delivered to advertisers.
Abso-fecking-lutely! It's like a "free" slime attack because there wasn't any manufactured slime to attempt to propagate! Wow, who knew the Demos could be so keen and succinct?
@ Day ... you also forgot my favorite segment .Politico.....where Joe Blogs and facts don't matter.
Dr. Rev. Sir Mr. Never Know Romney is a privileged sort
with gobs of money for a presidential run to abort.
He sways and weaves in and out of wild incantations
while for his record he offers mind-boggling distortions.
Vote for me, vote for me he saith to the fevered believers
and rapture will be laden upon those (people) who are our enemies.
Oh, Mitt what America have you been living in as you made millions?
One where your heart need only go out to your immediate minions?
-Kevo
A very powerful video, but the truth will not change the minds of Republican voters. The hatred for Obama is so strong through 3+ years of disinformation that the only way he can win his reelection is through strong voter turnout. This election will be decided by the classes of voters who don't normally show up in large quantities - minorities and young voters.
Well, aren't we the bearer of good news. Cheer up, if you look real closely people are starting to change their minds. And if you look even closer people are much more happier than they were in 2007-2008. They are smarter than you think and most of them do not want to revisit the Abyss. We still have 7, did I say 7, months to help people and to smile at your neighbor and genuinely care about each other. Make sure your voters' registration cards are valid and find out ahead of time where you need to go to vote. times, etc..
I agree with you on this one. We have to get the vote out, but now with all these voter suppressions laws in several states, I am concerned that it may affect more of the Democratic voters, esp. the poor, students and Latino who tend to have more issues with paying to get the proper ID the states require. This country will face an enormous downward and backward turn if these Republicans are not fired from Congress and we must esp. not hireone to run this country esp. Mitt Romney. Probably one of the worst Republican candidates I have ever seen.
Bolbis, don't worry about the Angel, he/she/it is still high on itself from all the glad Gawd tidings over the weekend..(/snark) You are correct, this will come down to of all things in a "democracy", votes. I will volunteer in my area, I suggest that you do the same. It helps.
You're exactly correct Bolbis. People are scrambling to throw the fake Obama out of office as opposed to understanding what the real Obama did while in office. And now they are going to elect a fake Romney and will probably be horrified at the actions taken by the real Romney once he's in office.
Siiiighs
Get out the vote- get your friends registered. Do whatever it takes to make an impact!
After this election maybe Romney and the likes of him will realize that their kind is no longer welcome. At least not in the political arena where their kind of influence has the money and the power to take innocent people and throw them out with the garbage. We should afford them the same right and throw them out with the garbage. I hope so. They may serve themselves better if they would just play with themselves and leave individuals with higher consciousness alone. Maybe they will crawl back through the hole in which they came.
I know a lot of people who worked at that steel plant. It was just next door to the town where I office. I had lots of clients who worked there. Bain Capital's bad management and fiscal malfeasance destroyed thousands of lives. Romney should be ashamed of himself for what he and his team of vultures did in Kansas City. Oh, the whole section of the city where the plant was located is a shell. The jobs are gone never to return. Staples doesn't have anybody to buy their stuff.
This video and 30 and 60 second spots like it should be used to carpet bomb every state in the Union. Political reporters should ask Romney to explain himself concerning Kansas City. By the way this mill is just a few miles from one of the holiest of holy Mormon sites. Many of his victims where followers of the Book of Mormon.
"a greedy, job-killing corporate titan with little concern for the working class."
As ususal, Politico is wrong! The correct line should be "a greedy, job-killing corporate titan with
littleno concern for the working class."Neither of the above are true. The Republican base is working class, and they are very concerned for them.
That's why they are so strong on "family values" such as preventing same-sex marriage, abstinence-only sex education, putting prayer back in schools, outlawing the word "abortion," banning contraception, cutting government services, and so on.
A few years ago, a friend of mine worked for a company that does the final liquidation on businesses. She tried to explain to me how these money guys come in and buy a company and act like they are saving it, then, before you know it the company is bankrupt and they walk away with their pockets full. What was left were employees that have worked at the company for 20 years losing their jobs AND retirement. I didn't quite understand the economics of it at the time, but now I certainly do.
It is called legal burglary or robbery, it is all legal because the bosses of these companies are letting the thieves come in and help themselves as long as they get a piece of that poison berry pie. They then take that pie and eat it and then that determines their fate. How many more times will they offer people a slice? Romney is stingy and he isn't even offering a slice of his pie to anyone. He wants more pie. And we as Americans, if we're lucky will get to eat the crumbs. Don't even think about a drink of water, he would rather let us choke and die as would his band of Robbers.
Watch "Goodfellas" and you find the parallel, only these raiders have found legal methods to perform criminal acts. Instead of torching the place they file bankruptcy and congratulate themselves for expertise in capitalism. This transition has been happening for some time...credit cards are legalized loan sharking, lotteries are the numbers game, venture capitalism is "busting out the joint"...the only difference is the perps are wearing suits, running ad campaigns implying respectibility and have lobbyists to set policy. AKA payoffs!?! Makes me wonder why go to business school when all that is required is to watch a gangster movie...
I think this is good. I have often wondered WHEN the Dems would take Romney up on his claim that he wants to talk 'jobs and the economy'...OK well HERE IT IS. Romney was a WEALTH creator for his investors and the country be damned. But when anyone has called him on it, the RNC whines about 'class warfare' and denigrating the RICH.
I can't wait for the debates.
I just hope Romney doesn't refuse to show up, or just have two or something like that.
Since reporters won't question Romney on his lies or ask about his real record on things our only hope is Obama asking him about it with his detailed memory and his matter-of-factly knowledge--- like he did with that GOP meeting that he
was invited tocrashed so that he coulddiscuss issues withbully the poor Republicans.Bully was the wrong word to choose how about discuss things with the rich Republicans.
Anyone care to bet on whether the "debate" rules will permit direct candidate-to-candidate questions? I'm betting they won't -- and the moderators will keep away from anything that is specific to something like this.
Romney will say and do anything to win.
Romney will say and do anything to make money
We know what he is, and vote for him we will not.
Funny how the right wingers can take every itty, bitty thing about President Obama and slay it all day long, but when it comes to Romney, they want to push it under the rug.....well hello we ain't gonna let them! They even have FOX to do their hachet job. The MSM has to finally do their job of real journalism, instead of faux journalism.
Like when the kids were whining to take the dog with them on vacation and Romney agreed to do that. Passive Agressive Bull....
If Rmoney is crowned then the rest of us will drown. Great spot on Boob Capital and bad management. Unfortunately, this type of bad "management" has infected most of corporate America. If you aren't producing buckets of cash for the shareholders alone then there is something wrong with your business regardless of what you do/make/manufacture, thus Boob Capital!
Predator 8 Vulture Capitalism.
Dems should focus on the idea that during previous republician elections the topic continued to be social issues and now they dont want to talk about social issues. Only on the surface but since they have the house they have continual made social issues the floor plan. So Dems have got to continual make notice of what is going on in the legislative republican versus what the sayers say the dems should be talking about the economy. Wow -what a rule of do as I say and not as I do. Republicans you only want to talk about social issues when it is convenient for you. Now you want to talk about the economy--yea right and do even worse in that talking point. Cut medicare, medicaid, food stamps, health care--so republicans lets talk about your economy. I would hope the President make strong focus on what social issues and the economy republicans realy want.
Their plan for divide and conquer is crumbling.
President and the Dem Party should be in full force of Romney being a job destroyer except money in his pocket. If that is a person who knows business then I am realy scare for this country if Romney gets in office. And the Ryan plan gets passed.
Didn't Ryan end up hurting Jenny in "Love Story"
While I feel terrible for these men and their families mainly because America's compact with them was broken, Bain just acted the predator. The plant's original owners sold the plant to Bain which sealed the fate of these people.
This is what happens when a plant can't compete for markets with lower cost, more efficient higher-tech producers, many in the Third World.
U.S. Justice, Commerce and Trade Policy is the culprit here, not Bain. You can make Bain the punching bag if you want, but the the real blame here goes to the Congress and the Special Interests that make companies like Bain and their assault on American workers possible.
You just forgot to connect the two dots: special interest and Bain Capital, et. al.
companies like Bain lobby Congress to water legislation down and to appoint heads to departments in such a way as to make the original intention of those departments and laws ineffective. Then the companies use that ineffectiveness to get away w/ whatever they want all the while singing "it's legal" to protect themselves from any negativity.
Even libertarians acknowledge this level of corruption between corporations and the government. Even a libertarian will tell you that yeah Bain is to blame because Bain lobbies the government and then the government makes policies that unfairly benefit Bain so that Bain can then lay people off. Even Ron Paul has said this when he's been asked about it. It's just that libertarians conclude the way to prevent the problem is to get rid of government thereby preventing what they see as legal loopholes and protections for businesses who are corrupt. They see it as the market will retaliate by no longer purchasing from these companies and that current law actually prevents the market from retaliating the way it otherwise would.
I am just pointing this out because I want you to see that your "only look at the government and never blame businesses for anything" mentality doesn't actually even sit w/ the most right wing economic philosophies.
(My original comment may have gone to moderation as a new user, so this might wind up duplicating my thoughts).
The point that needs to be emphasized most is the looting of the pension plans. Bain had a clear strategy of swooping in and taking out huge loans with the pension fund as collateral; using the money to pay themselves their management fees; then filing for bankruptcy forcing the pension plans to get chopped down.
It would be illegal for them to do this deliberately. Which is why all the Bain folks say Of Course they tried to save the company, it was too bad that it didn’t work out. But they did it enough times that it was clearly a business strategy.
Bain did “save” some companies. But Bain didn’t care whether the companies were saved or went down the tubes – they only cared about which approach would get them the most money. If killing the company made more for them, that was the way they went.
Some of these companies would have gone down the tubes even without Bain. But that’s the point. Without Bain, the pension funds would have had more protection. Bain’s business model was to look for a company that was going to fail, and leverage it to stuff their pockets. Which, from a pure “Romney made money” standpoint is borderline legal (as long as they claim they were trying to fix the company); but it’s as far from the ideal of capitalism (make useful things, sell them, profit) as you can get.
Years ago, ERISA provided for workers in situations like these by vesting earned benefits in defined pension benefit plans and having them insured to provide at least accrued benefits at normal retirement age in the event of plan termination. Later, FASB rules did a similiar thing for retiree welfare benefits by requiring that they be disclosed as a liability on company balance sheets.
Over the years, Republican initiatives gradually eroded these worker guarantees and encouraged supplanting defined benefit plans with defined contribution plans which shifted the risk of providing meaningful benefit security in old age from the employers to the workers themselves.
It's almost as though the Obama campaign has taken lessons from Karl Rove. First the culture war, now going after Romney's supposed strong suit.
I don't understand how ripping off pension funds isn't illegal. Mitt should be in jail. At least in the upcoming debates, ask him how he would improve the financial security of pension funds.
Tell me it isn't illegal to use a pension fund as collateral, especially fraudulantly.
This sad reality video was published on May 14, 2012 by BarackObama.com.
Kansas City's GST Steel had been making steel rods for 105 years when Romney and his partners took control in 1993. They cut corners and extracted profit from the business at every turn, placing it deeply in debt. When the company eventually declared bankruptcy, workers not only lost their jobs but were denied their full pensions and health insurance, and the government was forced to step in and provide a bailout.
What should have transpired is the employees of GST Steel acquire the company that they worked for using an Employ Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) trust, which would have allowed them to reap the future benefits of their ownership in the capital-intensive plant, new productive capital formation, and labor worker jobs.
Binary economist Louis Kelso was the architect and pioneer of the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), which Kelso invented to enable working people without savings to buy stock in their employer company and pay for it out of its future dividend yield––on the promise of the capital investment’s future income.
The ESOP provides access by employees to capital credit to buy company stock and pay for it in pre-tax dollars out of what the assets underneath that stock yield. Bank loans are made to the ESOP trust that represents employees, instead of to the company (current owners). The trust gives the lender a note and with the borrowed monies makes the investment in the company stock. The company then issues stock to the ESOP trust. The company now has the money, which otherwise could have been borrowed directly without the ESOP (benefiting current owners), to make the planned investment and repay the loan from pre-tax forecasted future capital earnings. The company promises the bank to make pre-tax full-dividend payments to the ESOP trust to enable the trust to replay the lender. Assuming that it would take five years for that capital investment to pay for itself, at the end of five years the employees now own the full stock value in the expanded company.
Companies can use the ESOP as the credit mechanism to create employee ownership in ratios up to a 100 percent leverage buyout. Nothing has been taken away from the existing owners. However, using the ESOP, the existing owners will surrender the exclusive right to acquire more ownership in the company and have a smaller percentage of ownership in the total company, but they have not been prevented from making a fair rate of return on their thus-far accumulated ownership shares because the company earns a rate of return throughout the process. After the loan has been paid off with pre-tax earnings, the employees will have more earnings from capital and they will have more consumer power to purchase products and services. Multiply this by tens of thousands of employee-owned companies and the economy revs up to grow dramatically.
There are now over 11,000 profitable ESOP companies, of which 1,500 of those companies are worker majority owned, with workers paying for their stock shares out of future corporate profits, not by reducing their take-home labor worker incomes.
See http://foreconomicjustice.com/11/economic-justice/
The very first thing I heard on the radio back here in Oklahoma. Thoses bad ole Democrats going after the Republicans. They sure have short memorys around here. Swift Boating, Tea Party propaganda concerning the presidents place of birth, Islam, the whole ball of wackos just a bunch of ChickenHawks.
Luz CanN: It isn't illegal if you say that your intent is to steer the company back into profit. Then you're a management company. If you try *really hard* to save the company, and the company still goes under, you haven't done anything wrong. You just couldn't save the company, when all was said and done.
There's no way to prove intent. They could have intended to go in, take their money, play Tetris in their offices for a few months, and then let the company fold. But you can't prove it.
Bain seems to have pulled large management fees out of several companies that folded. And I believe the "use the pension as collateral to borrow money" approach was used several times. I think that's the winning theme to hit.
Politico said the push casts Romney as "a greedy, job-killing corporate titan with little concern for the working class."
ummm, in case y'all at Politico haven't been paying attention, Rmoney IS a greedy, job killing, vulture capitalist whore with NO regard for the working people AT ALL!
The problem with Romney's blowback against Obama on the economy sounds
like a guy who clogs a toilet then blames the janitor for the problem.
Romney: I can't believe that after 3 years, you still haven't unclogged that toilet.
Obama: Well, if you hadn't clogged the toilet in the1st place, we wouldn't be in the mess we're in.
Romney: Let me fix it by doing what I did at first all over again. That'll fix it.
Obama: Yeah, right.