Why Is Everyone Focused on Bain Capital?

Why Is Everyone Focused on Bain Capital?

Jamelle Bouie

Because it's Mitt Romney's stated qualification for the presidency.

The past 24 hours have been abysmal for the Romney campaign. Not only has it scrambled to deal with revelations regarding Mitt Romney’s “shadow years” at Bain Capital, but further digging has led to more serious questions—and accusations—about Romney’s conduct. Put another way, you know you’re in trouble when even a friendly piece—by Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler—has to tackle the question of whether Romney broke the law.

Naturally, this has prompted a vigorous response from the Romney campaign, in the form of an ad that accuses President Obama of lying for political gain. Given recent revelations, the timing of the ad was a little awkward, but that hasn’t stopped the Romney campaign from deploying it in a serious way. As Greg Sargent reports, the ad is currently running in multiple media markets in each of the major swing states: Ohio, Virginia, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, and New Hampshire.

This push has two goals: first, to challenge President Obama trustworthy image—he maintains high favorability ratings—and second, to suggest there’s something illegitimate about the Obama team’s critique of Romney’s time at Bain Capital. The problem with this approach, of course, is that Romney insists we judge him on the basis of his accomplishments in the private sector. I took Romney’s victory speech for the Republican nomination—which he gave after winning primaries in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York—along with his four most recent speeches, and plugged them into a word cloud. Here is the result:



Massachusetts is nonexistent. Instead, we see references to “business”, “businesses,” and “enterprise.” According to Mitt Romney, it’s his time at Bain Capital that makes him qualified for the presidency. If that’s the case, then it’s only reasonable to ask questions about what came with the responsibility, and whether it’s appropriate experience for public office.

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http://prospect.org/article/why-everyone-focused-bain-capital