E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSThe Obama campaign isn't backing off the attacks on Mitt Romney's time at Bain Capital – doubling down with its latest ad. Eric Fehrnstrom, a senior adviser to the Romney campaign, discusses.
Obama was asked about his campaign’s attacks on Romney’s experience in private equity. He insisted that the issue was not a “distraction.” And he made the case this way, per NBC’s Jordan Frasier: “I think there are folks that do good work in that area [private equity] and there are times when they identify the capacity for the economy to create new jobs or new industries. But understand that their priority is to maximize profits. And that's not always going to be good for communities or businesses or worker. And 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. … And, when you're president, as opposed to when you're head of a private equity firm, your job is not simply to maximize profits. Your job is to figure out how everybody in the country has a fair shot.”
He added, “And so 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. That doesn't mean you weren't good at private equity. But that's not what my job is as president.”
AP: “It was Obama’s most expansive argument yet against Romney, and the president delivered it from a world stage in his home town.”
Bloomberg: “President Barack Obama cast his race against Republican Mitt Romney as a contest against a private-equity executive whose goal was maximizing profits, while the president’s job is to ‘figure out how everybody in the country has a fair shot.’”
The Boston Globe called it a “pointed defense.”
The Boston Globe on the Ampad attack: “The saga of SCM Office Supplies Inc. in Marion, Ind., was used by Kennedy in television ads and campaign trail appearances by SCM workers to undercut Romney as he mounted the most serious reelection challenge of Kennedy’s career. Bain-owned American Pad & Paper bought SCM in 1994, only to cut wages and benefits before closing the Marion plant a year later. Over 200 workers lost their job. By 2000, Ampad itself was declaring bankruptcy, while the Romney-led Bain and its investors had reaped over $100 million in profits.”
Priorities is using Romney’s GOP opponents against him in a new video on Bain.
Buzzfeed looks at Obama sometimes strains in corralling young, black leaders like ex-Rep. Artur Davis, ex-Rep. Harold Ford and Neward Mayor Cory Booker. “[F]ew figures have proven more troublesome than that cadre of black leaders, each of whom was seen at some point as a candidate for the post which only Obama will ever hold: First Black President,” Buzzfeed writes, adding, “The men have, for reasons of politics and personality, found themselves largely to the right of the president and well outside his inner circle.”
The reality is, though, as the story points out, Davis’s and Ford’s politics are more to the right of Obama because they were trying to win statewide in southern states, Ford makes millions from Wall Street, and as Davis says in the story, “Cory Booker has a very close relationship with a number of people in the private equity world and the hedge fund world.”
Birthers, birthers everywhere… As the Washington Post puts it, last week it was Arizona, now it’s Iowa: O. Kay Henderson: “The chairman of the Iowa Republican Party’s platform committee says the group is intentionally questioning President Obama’s citizenship with the wording in one section of the document. It calls for presidential candidates to ‘show proof of being a ‘natural born citizen’ of the United States.’
“Don Racheter, chairman of the Iowa GOP’s 2012 platform committee, spoke with Radio Iowa by phone this afternoon. ‘There are many Republicans who feel that Barack Obama is not a ‘natural born citizen’ because his father was not an American when he was born and, therefore, feel that according to the Constitution he’s not qualified to be president, should not have been allowed to be elected by the Electoral College or even nominated by the Democratic Party in 2008, so this is an election year. It’s a shot at him,’ Racheter said.”
Rahm’s role: “President Obama’s reelection campaign is taking strategic advice from former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, whom one operative described as the ‘Democratic Party’s Karl Rove,’” The Hill writes. “Emanuel, a friend of both campaign manager Jim Messina and senior strategist and fellow Chicagoan David Axelrod, periodically weighs in ‘very clearly’ on what the campaign should be doing, a Democratic official said.”
Leave a Comment:
"Birthers, birthers, everywhere"
That headline shows how much the MSNBC network is "Obama cheerleaders, Obama cheerleaders, everywhere" ..
The job of President is to see that the laws of the United States are carried out. Nobody has changed that definition to include "fairness judge" with Obama to decide what is fair or not. He attacks Romney on the record of Bain Capital while ignoring a success rate of 78%.
Then, of course, the GM bailout forced closure of around 1,000 GM franchises (per Huffington Post) across this country with employees at those franchises losing their jobs. The Obama administration did this.
Why not run on YOUR record Mr. Obama ? Tell us about the low national debt, the low unemployment, the lack of conflict with states over border issues, the lack of conflict with the Catholic Church over impending mandates. Tell us about the success of your successful investment in Solyndra. Tell us how thrifty the GSA has been with their convention dollars ....oh, and those tightwad "Western" federal judges also ! Tell us how you have cut the national debt in half as you promised ! Tell us about those shovel-ready jobs !
Mr. Obama ? President Obama ?? We can't hear you. Has the cat got your tongue ???
Jim
I asked you where you got your 78% statistic a couple of days ago. You never responded, leading me to conclude that you make things up.
Mitt the Barber opened up Bain Capital when he claimed he created tens of thousands of jobs. Examining that record is as valid as me asking where you get your Bain success statistics. If you can't prove your claims, quit making them.
Someone else reponded and saved me the trouble. Apparently, you choose to ignore that post. Do your own freakin homework. Your concusions are invalid as are most of your posts. Let's see you prove the second sentence of paragraph 2.
The Democratic party has nothing to run on but attacks. It is sad but true.
A sitting President can't run on anything he has done. What a waste of three plus years.
And so 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. That doesn't mean you weren't good at private equity. But that's not what my job is as president".
Mr Obama, however you may define the job of President, by any measure you have FAILED at it.
Bob,
Now you do have to admit .... he has fundamentally changed America.
We have trillions more in National Debt, we have a horrid government takeover of health care we can't afford, the political rhetoric has become much more divisive and we still do not have a budget !!! Oops, I forgot the unprecedented credit downgrade .....and I forgot the lawsuits where Eric Holder is suing states over border issues.
How's that hopey changey thing working for you Bob ???
Bob you and rukidding are showing your fear of the President. But then again you should fear him, he's going to kick your tea people Koch republican butts in November, but first he'll wipe the floor with you in the debates.
We fear what his actions as President are doing to the long-term financial viability of our country. We are in debt up to and passing our butts, and Obama still has no budget in his 4th year of office !!!!
You forget how the Democrats were "shellacked" in November, 2010.
Jim you are correct sir.
Mo your just a tired old hag who fears everything. I have no more fear of obama then I do a dog turd in the sidewalk. It stinks and is annoying and no mater how much you complain about it all you have to do is pick it up and throw it away. Much like what we will do to Obama in November. I just hope his last helicopter ride is to Gitmo so he can be amongst friends. I think there is room for one more MO. Its a free ride so i bet you would sign right up.
Bishop Senor Willard ( I flip flop on even my name) Romney is going to get his butt handed to him in November. You betcha. And no Ann Romney it is not your turn. The American people know the republican/tea party is only looking to take care of the rich. There will be a Democratic super majority in house and President Obama will win reelection by a land slide.
OBAMA/BIDEN 2012
Less than two weeks after Obama flip-flops on gay marriage YOU are accusing Romney of that ?
Obama has waffled on the issues so many times he could be the poster boy for Waffle House !
Raising the debt ceiling ..... waffle
Gay marriage ...... waffle yes, waffle no, waffle yes again
Closing Gitmo .......... waffle
Starting a war without Congressional approval ..... waffle
Extending the Bush tax cuts .......... waffle
Wiretapping U.S. citizens under Patriot Act ....... waffle
Has anyone got the maple syrup ?
Jim
Obama has demonstrated that he does not have a closed mind, as some of the commentators in this forum appear to have.
Changing policy based on introspection, expert advice and negotiation is progress; changing position depending on political expediency is pandering, or if you will waffling.
ROTFLMAO at you !!! WOWZERS !!
So if Mitt changes a position, ever so slightly, he is a flip-flopper according to libtards like yourself. Then you have the audacity to rationalize Obama's ever-changing positions with a complete masturbation of words trying to suggest brilliance. Obama contradicting Obama will be the "EASY" button for Romney. All Romney has to do is show film clips of Obama tearing down Bush for asking an increase in the national debt when he was Senator, then show his repeated attempts for more and more debt as President.
Obama's been pandering for votes for three years now .... oops, make that three and a half. That's why he changed his position on gay marriage .... that and Joe "foot-in-mouth" Biden's "advance declaration" which forced Obama.
Wow! Artur Davis switched parties! That's huge! If anyone saw him on Fox news the other night -- I think he's brlliant. So glad i live in VA -- He's the real deal. Soon Obama will be left with only Uncles Al and Jesse. We all are guaranteed the pursuit of happiness and the American dream. The problem is - Obama thinks everyone is entitled to it. Handouts, bailouts and blackouts! (No pun intended!)
One more thing -- the Walker win in Wisconsin was huge! I believe Wisconsin's sentiment is all across the country - I'm predicting another presidential election like we had in 1980. People are afraid of saying anything about Obama for fear of being called racist. I myself - I loved Herman Cain -- Obama? Not so much! The Reverand Wright fiasco turned me off to him.