China investments? Apples and Oranges
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As a freshly-minted U.S. Senator in 2005, Barack Obama established a blind trust to independently manage his investments, a campaign official said. But later that year he liquidated his stocks and closed the trust because “he realized that this arrangement did not adequately protect him against even the perception of a conflict of interest.”
The president currently owns no stock, and his investments — treasuries and diversified funds — are fully disclosed, thereby precluding need for him to have a blind trust, an Obama campaign official said.
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The Romney campaign says the governor has never claimed to have investments in a federal blind trust and that the existing arrangement is free from conflicts of interest. They do not, however, directly explain why Romney would not transition to a federal blind trust now, or before taking office.
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A Romney spokesperson said this: "As has been reported for years, governor and Mrs. Romney’s assets are managed on a blind basis. They do not control the investment of these assets, which are under the control and overall management of a trustee."
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/06/obama-camp-raises-romney-blind-trust-questions/
Are they or are they not in a blind trust? If they are in a blind trust, even that does not negate his ability to have some say in it.
Romney said this in 1994 when he was campaigning against Ted Kennedy: "The blind trust is an age old ruse, if you will, which is to say you can always tell the blind trust what it can and cannot do. You give the blind trust rules."
http://open.salon.com/blog/naithom/2012/07/12/mitt_romney_stericycle_and_the_issue_of_blind_trust
And if his investments are considered a blind trust, it is not as blind as it should be.
Romney placed his quarter-billion dollar family fortune in the hands of his personal lawyer and longtime associate Bradford Malt.
Federal officeholders are required to either fully disclose all their financial holdings and any possible conflicts of interest, or place their holdings in a blind trust. Robert Kelner, a Republican election lawyer in Washington, D.C. with no ties to a current presidential campaign, explained the federal rules governing those blind trusts. "The Office of Government Ethics requires that a financial institution be appointed as the trustee and that the financial institution not be controlled by or have done business with the candidate," said Kelner. "It would preclude you from hiring your favorite lawyer as the trustee."
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/mitt-romneys-blind-trust-blind/story?id=15188063#.UICE2mdkcaM
Obama's? It is managed by the Illinois State Board of Investment on behalf of the state employees’ retirement system. Hardly the same as what Romney is doing.
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The president's defined benefit under the pension is between $50,000 and $100,000, according to financial disclosure forms.
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But there is a substantive difference between Romney's relationship to his retirement account and Obama's to the Illinois pension fund.
As far as we know, Obama has never taken an active role in managing the assets of the pension fund. He suggested during the debate that he doesn't pay much attention to it.
Romney's retirement account, on the other hand, includes investments worth up to $30 million in a company he used to run.
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/17/romney-obama-pension-bain-capital-investments_n_1974213.html