To Bain or Not to Bain?

A more hard-hitting Anti-Bain ad from Priorities USA.

Blog from NY Times article:

On Wednesday, Mitt Romney brings his campaign to Florida for a speech and a fundraiser. He will no doubt brag that he alone has the experience to create jobs in America ... but somehow I imagine he won't be telling any stories about this aspect of his experience: the story of how Bain Capital loaded up medical company Dade Behring with debt, allowing it to extract $342 million in profit before firing 850 of the company's Florida-based employees and declaring bankruptcy. As the New York Times reported:

Bain settled on a common tactic in private equity: In April 1999, it pushed Dade to borrow hundreds of millions of dollars to buy half of Bain’s shares in the company — and half of those of its investment partners.

Bain pocketed the $242 million. Goldman received $121 million. Top Dade executives got $55 million, records show. The total payout to shareholders reached $420 million — nearly as much as the purchase price for Dade.

But then:

The strategy of sharply increasing Dade’s debt alarmed several executives. Mr. Garrett, the former chief executive of Dade who stood to gain from the transaction, said he had argued unsuccessfully against it.

“It was too aggressive,” Mr. Garrett said. “It was done right up to the limit of what the company could borrow.”

With the amount of money that Dade owed to creditors and vendors at nearly $2 billion, some executives worried that the company would have little maneuvering room if its financial situation suddenly deteriorated.

Soon enough, it did. Interest rates rose, increasing Dade’s debt payments. The value of the euro, then a new currency, slid, reducing Dade’s European revenue. And a new distribution center had unexpected delays.

Creditors, unsettled by deteriorating finances and high debts, began to pounce. More layoffs followed. And in August of 2002, Dade filed for bankruptcy protection.

Bain's initial investment was $30 million. It cashed out $342 million—more than 1,000 percent of what it originally paid, yet the company still went bankrupt and nearly 1,000 Florida workers lost their jobs.

This is the experience Mitt Romney wants to bring to the Oval Office. No thanks.

Source: Forbes

Medicare Fraud

In 1989, Bain Capital purchased controlling interest in Damon Corp., a medical testing company located in Needham, Massachusetts.

During the time that Bain held its ownership of the company, Mitt Romney personally sat on the Board of Directors. And during that same period, Damon Corp. was busy submitting fraudulent reimbursement claims to Medicare to the tune of millions of dollars charged for unnecessary blood tests.

...

You see, before Romney indicated that he was involved in conducting an investigation while he was on the board of directors, he said that he was completely unaware of any investigation.

Here’s another shocker. While the company eventually went bankrupt, with thousands losing their jobs, Bain Capital walked away with a $12 million profit—a little over $400,000 of that money ending up in Mitt’s pocket.

*****

He sought a law firm because he knew what federal criminal charges would do to the value of his company.

I am somewhat disappointed that the Obama team is down playing Obama's management of the economy!! ---They surely have bought into the GOP narrative that Obama is weak on the economy. Now Boehner is threatening to obstruct and create chaos this coming November in order to bring the President down!!--- I hope the Obama administration gets enough guts and tout Obama's prevention of allowing this economy to free fall!!---- Even Romney admitted that the economy was recovering!!   The Obama administration needs to continue to do the comparison with the crisis from last year and the monumental improvement to this year!!---- They need to continue to show graphs and pictures to reflect the improvement from last year. Some consumers are visual learners and they would grasp the concept of how the economy has improved with these different visual aids. As a result, the Obama administration have to be creative with various  teaching styles in order to educate and convince the public of his accomplishments on the economy; merely stating that he has made improvements may not be enough?? IDK?

Team Romney campaign are pissed about these Bain Capital videos. If Romney want to call the people in the video liars, good luck with that as a campaign tactic.

He destroyed their jobs, bankrupted the pension fund, and profited from something that loss money for the little guy. I'm pleased that former blue collar workers have been given a voice. It makes Romney look like a greedy owner... and dumb.

You folks are unduly worried about the campaign message 5 1/2 months out from the G.E. Here's my advice: DON'T!

Obama might not be great at governing (I have been critical of him at times, particularly his overwhelming desire to give in to GOP stupidity), but one thing Obama is GREAT at: it's campaigning.

No worries, mate! (Crocodile Dundee)

If his performance on behalf of the Affordable Care Act in 2010 is your idea of great campaigning, please come join me in the whirlpool of worry.

Well, with friends like Cory Booker, President Obama needs no enemies. Geesh. Why can't the Democrats be unified on such a simple Anti-Bain message? And if there are some Democrats uncomfortable with it, don't they know to just keep their mouths shut and avoid scheduling yourself on Sunday morning talk shows. I'm glad Booker back-tracked but it's too late. I'm sure Romney is already creating ads with Booker's pro-Bain words. Great job on messaging, Democrats!

And the ever reliable (NOT!) Harold Ford happily made things worse on "Morning Joe" today saying that Booker should not have backed down and Ford of course defended companies like Bain. Ford is known to defend big banks,too, and agree with Republican ways that are great for the rich but kick the poor, so we should put in perspective, I suppose. There is a reason he is just a talking head and not an elected representative anymore. Again, I am not saying companies like Bain are evil and I'm sure they do some good, especially for their purpose which is to make money for investors. But all Democrats should be unified in attacking Romney for pretending that Bain produced more jobs than it destroyed and acting like the purpose of Bain was to save or create jobs when that is far from the truth. Let's stay focused, Democrats! I'm sure the GOP won't hesitate to use the words of Booker so Team Obama should already be using Gingrich and Perry in their ads. And watch polling carefully this week. If Obama slips or doesn't gain much ground, expect the headline to be "Bain ads backfiring." I sure hop that's not the case!!!

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/harold-ford-i-agree-with-corey-bookers-remarks

No surprise.

The RNC is capitalizing on comments from Newark Mayor Cory Booker by sending out a fundraising email and creating an “I Stand With Cory” petition, asking signers not to let “The Obama Campaign Silence Support for Job Creation.” Booker created a small firestorm Sunday when he said on “Meet the Press” that he’s “uncomfortable” with the Obama campaign’s ads going after Bain Capital for laying off workers – comments he tried to smooth over in a video Sunday evening. 

The petition reads:

Yesterday New Jersey Mayor Cory Booker, a surrogate spokesman for the Obama campaign called the president’s attacks on the free market “ridiculous”. That’s right Mr. President, we aren’t going to let you destroy free enterprise. Stand up for America. Stand up for job creators.

Hey, this is flattering. Politico stole my headline. Who says we are not major players here at RFO? Lol. But I do think the article is worth a read, looking at the same question I continue to ask. Is Bain fair game and smart politics or will it backfire? I think it's still an open question.

The Obama campaign is throwing everything they have at Mitt Romney on Bain Capital.  No surprise there.

And the GOP is throwing everything they can muster at Chicago in self-defense -- especially Cory Booker's "Meet the Press" statement and subsequent hostage tape -- sending out a bunch of press releases, snarky emails and even a petition urging the faithful to "Stand with Cory."  Also no surprise.

But is it smart -- for either side?

My general sense, from talking to Democratic strategists, is that the GOP counterattack might boomerang on Romney: any day where any Republican is sending out press releases with the word "Bain" in the subject line is a muddled, defensive day for Romney.

Chicago's goal is to make Bain a household word -- and that is best accomplished through repetition to form a groove in the collective consciousness of American voters. I haven't seen any public polling (If anyone has some, let me know) on what percentage of the American populace actually knows what Bain is.

But my feeling, based on the spending patterns of the Obama campaign, is that it's not as high as Chicago would like: They are slowly building those numbers with paid media, and hoping for the GOP and MSM will take it from there. They are building brand recognition.

Obama: Fighting Romney on economy ‘is what this campaign is going to be about’

"This issue is not a distraction," Obama defiantly declared at a press conference wrapping up a NATO summit in his hometown of Chicago. "This is what this campaign is going to be about."

"If your main argument for how to grow the economy is 'I knew how to make a lot of money for investors,' then you're missing what this job is about," the president said, evidently relishing the opportunity to knock Romney.

"It doesn't mean you weren't good at private equity, but that's not what my job is as president. My job is to take into account everybody, not just some. My job is to make sure that the country is growing not just now, but ten years from now and 20 years from now," he said.

-snip-

"My view of private equity is that it is set up to maximize profits," he said. "And that's a healthy part of the free market. But that's not always going to be good for communities or business or workers."

"The reason this is relevant to the campaign is because my opponent, Governor Romney, his main calling card for why he thinks he should be president is his business experience," Obama said. "He's not going out there touting his experience in Massachusetts, he's saying 'I'm a business guy, I know how to fix it,' and this is his business."

"And when you're president, as opposed to the head of a private equity firm, then your job is not simply to maximize profits," he said. "Your job is to figure out how everybody in the country has a fair shot."

"Mister Romney is responsible for the proposals he's putting forward for how he says he's going to fix the economy," Obama said. "And if the main basis for him suggesting he can do a better job is his track record as the head of a private equity firm then both the upsides and the downsides are worth examining."

Jim Cramer: Bain Capital "Fired a Lot of People and That's How They Got Prosperity For The Rich"

Link from TPM. Using Gingrich, Perry, Huntsman and even Palin to make your point about Bain. That's what I'm talking about!

The pro-Obama super PAC Priorities USA Action has created a new web video which uses attacks from Mitt Romney’s rivals during the Republican primary to attack Romney’s record at Bain Capital. “Somebody who’s very wealthy comes in, takes over your company, takes out all the cash, and leaves behind the unemployment,” Newt Gingrich says in one clip used in the video. “I think that’s not a model we want to advocate, and I don’t think any conservative wants to get caught defending that kind of model.” 

Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman makes an appearance, saying “Governor Romney enjoys firing people. I enjoy creating jobs.” Texas Gov. Rick Perry is also featured prominently in the video, where he says “There is something fundamentally wrong when getting rich off failure and sticking it to someone else is how you do your business.” 

Also included is a clip of Sarah Palin saying it was legitimate to ask Romney for proof of his claim to have created 100,000 jobs while at Bain.  

“Even Republicans know Mitt Romney has not explained how his experience profiting from companies driven to bankruptcy qualifies him to be President,” Bill Burton, Senior Strategist for Priorities USA Action said in a statement. “If Romney makes business experience the central reason for his campaign, voters have every right to question the many deals where Romney made millions while workers lost their jobs and promised benefits.”

The video comes after Mitt Romney’s campaign on Monday created a video featuring Democrats questioning Obama’s attacks on Bain Capital.

Link from The Hill. Former Republican Governor & Romney surrogate Sununu says the Bain issues are "fair game."

Let's face it-Romney decided long ago to run on his record as a "businessman" (rather than as a former Governor) so for him to think that Bain is "off limits" makes no sense. He should have been prepared for these attacks but he seems unsure of how to blunt the message. And President Obama is right to question exactly how this qualifies him to be our president when he has experience and success helping the 1% but not too many of the 99%.

 Ed Rendell, Cory Booker, and other "even handed, blame on both sides" Democratic jerks are "helping Obama" into the street.

Gotta give the GOP credit... their spokespersons hung together under the onslaught of the war against women campaign. They denied it even when the evidence for a GOP
war on women could fill a house. THAT... is campaign message discipline and team work.

Chris Matthews and Mike Scherer of TIME MAGAZINE on HARDBALL are properly nailing the Democrats for their crappy messaging, blaming (fairly) the White House for not taking cable chatter seriously in the first two years of the administration and Democratic leaders now for amateurish message discipline and coordination.

DEMOCRATIC MESSAGING...  When winning seems just a little too elitist.