There's a spirited debate underway on the relevance of Mitt Romney's controversial private-sector background -- even the party lines have been blurred -- but I continue to think the Republican's record while in office is arguably the greater vulnerability.
On "Fox News Sunday" yesterday, host Chris Wallace asked a series of pointed questions to House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Austan Goolsbee, the former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers for President Obama, but there was one question in particular that stood out for me.
Wallace asked Ryan:
"You know, it's not just a question of vision, it's also a question record because of these men have served in office and have records in office. So, let's take a look at that.
"Mitt Romney was governor of Massachusetts for four years, Congressman Ryan. And during that time, Massachusetts ranked 47th of the 50 states in job creation. The only reason the unemployment rate went down [was] because so many people left the work force -- more than any other state in the country except Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina. Is that a record to be proud of?"
The question only took 15 seconds to say, but it's easy to imagine it showing up in an Obama campaign ad.
When Ryan pushed back and said the unemployment rate in Massachusetts went down during Romney's one term, Wallace again reminded him, "If I may, sir, again over the four years, 47th in job creation and unemployment rate went down because so many people were leaving the state."
Ryan didn't have much of a response, so he changed the subject to the "contrast in visions" and Romney's support for an "opportunity society." (There's that phrase again.)
The larger point, of course, is that we're looking at a campaign dynamic without a modern precedent, especially for a governor running for the White House. In 2000, George W. Bush said, "Look at what I did in Texas." In 1992, Bill Clinton said, "Look at what I did in Arkansas." In 1980, Ronald Reagan said, "Look at what I did in California."
And in 2012, Mitt Romney is saying, "Look at what I did at Bain Capital."
You know there's a problem for Romney when his own top surrogates struggle to defend his record in Massachusetts -- his only experience in government -- during a Fox News interview.
Indeed, let's also not forget that Jon Huntsman, who's endorsed Romney, said through his campaign last summer, "The reality is Mitt Romney's record on job creation was abysmal by every standard."
As we talked about last week, this is probably an untenable scenario. At a certain point, a former governor running for president is going to have to talk about his tenure as governor.
And when the subject comes to the fore, it might be difficult for Romney to explain his awful record on jobs, as well as the fact he failed to impress much of anyone when he tried to lead.
"His favorability was basically a straight line down from his honeymoon," said David Paleologos, director of Suffolk University's Political Research Center and a longtime Massachusetts pollster. "Sometimes familiarity breeds contempt." [...]
Romney entered the Massachusetts State House in January 2003 with a flashy favorability rating of 61 percent.... By November 2004, voters were souring, and a Suffolk poll found his favorable rating had dropped to 47 percent... By November 2006, as he closed out his increasingly absentee term, his overall job approval rating had cratered to 36 percent.
This isn't just because Massachusetts is a reliably "blue" state. It's had plenty of modern Republican governors -- Weld, Cellucci, Swift -- and all were more popular with their Bay State constituents than Romney.
Opinions vary as to the propriety and efficacy of criticizing Romney's record of leveraged buyouts and mass layoffs. But it seems to me the presumptive Republican nominee will be in even bigger trouble when attention turns to his four years as governor, when he presumably had a chance to apply the lessons he learned at Bain Capital.
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I'll have to say that this made my day.
But they better not use this in an ad. It might nauseate poor sensitive Cory!
Just because Mittens made a fortune at Bain, it doesn't mean that those still-sets will translate into "governmental leadership". The qualities needed for Bain are - cold-hearted detachment, the ability to analyze and see which governmental programs/loopholes provide the greatest return on investment, the ability to not give a dayum whether or not people loose their jobs - while these are fine in "business" - these are not "public leadership" requirements or skill sets. Does no one remember Shrub & Darth Chaney -"The Manchurian candidate" and his evil puppet-master? The left this nation ransacked by the plutocracy - to put Mittens in office is to deny that we would be shooting ourselves in the head, again, really?
Romney isn't qualified by any standards to govern this nation! And even the GOP understands that intrinsically - that's why they change the subject or act like they didn't understand the question! Now if only the sheeple wake up in time to vote against Mittens and the GOP agenda!
There's only one way to bring back the US economy....vote a straight democratic ticket in November! Get rid of some of the right wing tea partiers. Only then will the Executive and Legislative branches start to work across the aisle again. Don't forget, the next POTUS will have Supreme Court seats to fill! Romney will turn them so conservative, more restraints on our hard fought freedoms will be guaranteed!
Gov. Romney will need to explain how it benefits the worker when corporations consolidate, as they did under Bain. Really, this is the whole argument, that allowing corporations to be more profitable through lower taxes and fewer regulations will somehow help the middle class and promote jobs. From my Economics 101, the two concepts are only vaguely related. Corporations won't hire until they have to. If they can't produce more without a larger staff, then they hire. Demand spurs hiring. Then extra profit will help absorb the cost of more staff, but without demand, all that extra profit just goes to the officers.
Again, you can pile on the profit all you want, but no corporation will hire unless demand requires more staff.
I used to own a corporation, and this is clear to me. President Obama's campaign needs to make this crystal clear to the general population. Romney shouldn't be this close in the polls by lying, again and again. The fact that he is represents a problem for Democrats.
I also believe that corporate America is waiting for the govt. to make up its mind one way or the other, and sadly the current climate will only allow gridlock. And I blame the Republicans.
Maybe the trees are all the right size, but let us step back and look at the forest. In 2012 no qualified Republican would decide to run in a losing race. The forest will be mature-ready to clear cut- in 2016.
I think Bain is first part of the attack on Willard's ' competence'. I don't believe for one minute that the Obama campaign won't bring up his time as Governor.
Or the time he dressed up like a Scarecrow for Halloween. But, we could recognize who it was.
If I could have gotten through school by changing the subject every time I was asked a difficult question, I might have had a MBA in business and be a republican in congress getting paid for not doing my job. Just sayin'.
That's the only way Liberty University students can graduate.
There needs to be some truth telling, instead of fantasy about if Mitt made millions, he will help me make millions. The truth is people are used as traction under wheels to make those millions that Mitt made. Someone lost so Mitt could win, many, many someones lost. These people think cutting jobs is the thing to do, the cure. No, it's making deficits and debt worse!
People need to see that good economy comes from consumers buying things, and if people worry about income getting cut, they don't buy stuff.
The economic downturn and tax cuts have caused most of this, we saw the chart of where so much debt came from. http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/05/obama-romney-deficit-debt-chart.php
We do not want more of that!
The Ryans and Romneys want to keep their high income tax cuts so they can cut more jobs and enrich their inner circles. http://www.brookings.edu/up-front/posts/2012/04/13-tax-greenstone-looney
If you haven't seen it yet, the Nick Hanauer TED six-minute economics lesson is not to be missed..."the true job creators are middle class consumers".
http://youtube.com/watch?v=bBx2YSHhplI
Lawrence had him on Thursday night's Last Word...
oops! sorry - put the www. in but it still won't show...try finding on google...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=bBx2Y5HhplI
I was very impressed with Nick Hanauer's presentation. I believe he needs to be widely seen, even viral.
Yes, there is a club that needs to understand, busting unions and cutting jobs affects bottom line of everyone.
p.s. Anyone know what is Bubblegum error? I tried posting a Times article (perhaps wrong company?) about this video.
My biggest fear in the upcomming election is we have 2 who have identical records in job creation and everyone will vote to the experienced failure in office instead of making a change. The myth that government can create jobs is a joke. The only thing the government can do is regulate. The president has continually demonstrated he cannot accomplish anything with out a congress controlled by his own party. 'My way or the highway' will not create a positive market for job growth. The only words I would like to hear from the president is he is going to reduce regulatory redundancy, cut government workers, and reduce taxes.
Well, you've gotten your wish: government employment is down, unneeded regulations are being removed, and taxes have been cut on the people who need it. Your "my way or the highway" quote? That's Boehner you're quoting, not Obama. But here's where you're wrong: government CAN create jobs, and we'd have a much better unemployment rate if the GOP wasn't obsessed with "starving the beast" or drowning the government in a bathtub. There are thousands, hundreds of thousands, of jobs waiting to be done that Congress won't fund, and those are jobs that need doing, such as upgrading our infrastructure so that we're not sucking hind-teat to China in terms of development. Don't look to the White House for the problem, look to Congress and its GOP members who are obsessed with politics over the American people's good.
So much for the claim that military contracts and bases in a Congressman's district are good for the economy, then.
And also, so much for all that research spending. Not to mention dams, bridges, and highways.
Oh Look ! It is the three stooges of the economic terrorism apocalypse !
Racial Republicans want to cut legitimate spending to cover up criminal spending.
Where are the trillions of dollars that have been stolen from Americans' tax dollars through military industries graft, corporate subsidy graft, wall street graft, banking graft, housing graft, pharmaceutical graft, foreign dictators graft, and on and on ?
Our deficit seems to be about the same amount that has be siphoned out of our economy. But who cares about the elephant in the room right ?
They will just let Grandma and Grampa starve to death in the streets while billionaires get more and more of what they have already stolen through criminal government spending. Nice.
Yes, among other things, it might be helpful to remind sheeple how much Darth Cheney's and the Bush family's friends made from no-bid govt contracts even after they were shown to have committed fraud and to have produced only a fraction of what they contracted to do. You KNOW some of the big money behind Rmoney's candidacy is hoping to continue this military-industrial welfare.
But according to Romney, the economy is a zero-sum game: for every winner, there is a loser. So all of his fortune from Bain came from picking other peoples' pockets.
Whose pockets will he pick when he's in the White House?
I have seen Ryan's vision, he will try and destroy The American people and then he will get voted out of office, and he will never apologize. Just like Bush has not apologized to the American People, the least he could do is start going on tour with Romney so The Republican people can actually see who they are voting for. He should introduce Romney everytime as his amigo, his friend his comrade in the war against the oppressed.
I hope Cory Booker shoves this up his own @##
What we know about Romney has been well-documented: He is ruthless in business & politics; he has no moral compass. Time and time again, Romney has had opportunity after opportunity to rise to the occasion to demonstrate moral leadership he dropped the ball. By all accounts his leadership "attempts" (Iam being generous) fail on every level.
Romney became the GOP presumptive nominee for no other reason than by process of elimination. Without a record to run on, no moral authority, no leadership qualities & no vision for the country, the only thing Romney has going for him is, "Iam not the other guy." Not exactly what I'd call inspiring.
Furthermore Romney is neither a consensus builder nor a leader. The ease in which he lies on the campaign trail tell me he will just as easily lie, god forbid in office. His lack of knowledge is stunning. He may be ruthless & crafty in business & politics, but they are not the qualities of a statesman. He certainly has no moral authourity.
I have no confidence whatsoever that Romney could be trusted in higher office to lead this country.
That's not true. He does have a moral compass, and being the magnetic personality that he is -- it always points at him.
I'm sure that waiting in the wings is the plan to blast Romney's time as governor of Mass. Will Joe Scarborough and his pals condemn the Obama campaign for bringing this up to,like they do the Romney Bain Capital massacre's?I think there will also be a healthy dose of ad's about Romney's offshore account's. This is going to be,as Arte Johnson used to say on Laugh In, Veley Intelesting.
It's an opportunity (to lie) society! Every republican's wet-dream!
But make sure that you only look at what he did for company like Staples and Sports Authority, if you look at the company he bankrupted and the workers he screwed over while he was there, that will be "Character Assassination". So look at it, but look only the good side of it.
Here's one I saw happen locally (one of many stores closed Kay Bee Toys) now closed, but bought by ToyRUS.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511407
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KB_Toys
The fact that Romney had left Bain to go work for SLC Olympics is irrelevant to me. He was doing business like this with Bain Capital. I saw the store go downhill and then no more, times 1300 stores.
http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Bain-amp;-Company-Company-History.html
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-30490095.html
There's lots to read about how Mitt made his touted business man credentials he waves around. The funding universe link has references at the bottom. I'm sure (sarcasm) people are reading all about this stuff before saying "he's not Obama" and puts in a guy to do things just like Bush did. Bush was experienced in business, too. Failed at oil business in Texas… http://alaric3rh.home.sprynet.com/science/bceo.html
I predict that sometime before November, the Romney campaign's strategy will basically to be Marty McFly and point in some random direction and scream "What the hell's that!" whenever someone asks a question or presses for specifics on anything. Romney's one and only accomplishment in life was to turn a giant pile of money into a ginormous pile of money. Who the @!$%# cares?
And I'm waiting to see the "that was after I left" when the company lost jobs. Then yes, I take credit for those success stories (even though they were after I left).
I say give Romney a chance. He couldn't do any worse than the Amateur we have in there now.
You are oh so massively wrong. Romney could, and would, do huge damage, and would, by his very nature, be worse than Obama, who has pulled the US out of a nosedive despite the stubborn resistance of a disloyal opposition. Romney may be an expert at gutting a company and making tons for investors, but he fails at job-creation and improving the situation of the middle class and below. If you're a Chinese investor in the US, sure, you might be in favor of him... since he'll gut the US and sell it for a massive profit for himself, if he follows past behavior.
He's gotten Detroit wrong, he's gotten the recent China issue wrong, he's gotten the facts wrong time and time and time again. Romney is wrong-ney for America.
Oh Really?
Romney Camp: Romney’s Still Created More Jobs than Obama
By Katrina Trinko
May 14, 2012 11:54 A.M.
Comments
10
“Mitt Romney helped create more jobs in his private sector experience and more jobs as Governor of Massachusetts than President Obama has for the entire nation,” said Romney spokesperson Andrea Saul in a statement in response to the new Obama attack ad.
“President Obama has many questions to answer as to why his administration used the stimulus to reward wealthy campaign donors with taxpayer money for bad ideas like Solyndra, but 23 million Americans are still struggling to find jobs,” Saul added.
The campaign is also highlighting Sanofi, a Kansas City, Mo., company that has been awarded $80 million in stimulus funds, but is laying off hundreds of workers. The Sanofi job losses, the campaign is suggesting, should be viewed as Obama’s fault if Romney is blamed for the GST Steel losses.
Furthermore, during Romney’s time at Bain, the company invested in another steel company, Steel Dynamics, which is still thriving and has “generated $6.3 billion in revenue in 2011 while employing more than 6,000 American workers,” as Patrick reported earlier this year.
National Review has its facts wrong, because they're listening to the Romney campaign as they show by actually QUOTING the spokesperson; that's what the " " marks mean. Massachusetts was horrible on job creation under Romney, and the facts bear that out. The few successes, despite Romney, are drowned out by the destroyed companies that left tons of people out of work and denied their livelihood and pensions.
Also, to reply to your extra postings that betray your misunderstanding of the comment system here as WELL as the Bain reality, a) that will happen IF they're approved, and b) where is the gutting? Companies buy each other all the time, and the same has happened with the big banks here. And finally, c) how is this an Obama doing? Is he on the board of the company buying them out? Did he make an executive order that AMC sell out? I'm thinking no, and I'm also thinking you don't have a real grasp on reality. Oh, by the way, when you're making an assertion, it's useful to have proof. No link, it's just your word (which isn't looking so strong).
Might want to read this - http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/story/2012-01-05/fact-check-romney-jobs/52397232/1
Chinese company buys AMC movie theater chain.
Hey Grumpy, Just happened today.
If approved by U.S. and Chinese regulators, the $2.6 billion acquisition will create the world's largest theater group, the companies said. The move, China's biggest corporate takeover to date in the USA, highlights the rising financial strength of its top firms.
So you're telling me Obama's not do any gutting?
A couple of weeks ago, Newt stopped running and Romney complimented him after ceaselessly insulting him during his campaign. Fox's Shephard Smith commented on this, “Politics is weird, and creepy, and now I know lacks even the loosest attachment to anything like reality.” Now Chris Wallace is asking touch questions of Republicans.
What's happening to Fox News? Somebody pinch me!