Romney clueless in interview about what running Bain has to do with being president

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Last edited Thu May 24, 2012, 12:35 PM - Edit history (1)

from Steve Benen at the Maddow Blog: http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/24/11859290-asking-the-right-questions-about-bain-capital

Mitt Romney sat down with Time's Mark Halperin yesterday for a pretty long interview . . . here's an excerpt:

Halperin: The President says that your experience at Bain Capital will be central in this election. He says it does not qualify you to be a job creator as President. I know you think that working in the private sector in and of itself gives you insight into how the economy works, but what specific skills or policies did you learn at Bain that would help you create an environment where jobs would be created?

Romney: Well that’s a bit of a question like saying, what have you learned in life that would help you lead? My whole life has been learning to lead, from my parents, to my education, to the experience I had in the private sector, to helping run the Olympics, and then of course helping guide a state. Those experiences in totality have given me an understanding of how America works and how the economy works. Twenty five years in business, including business with other nations, competing with companies across the world, has given me an understanding of what it is that makes America a good place to grow and add jobs, and why jobs leave America – why businesses decide to locate here, and why they decide to locate somewhere else. What outsourcing causes – what it’s caused by, rather. I understand, for instance, how to read a balance sheet. I happen to believe that having been in the private sector for twenty-five years gives me a perspective on how jobs are created – that someone who’s never spent a day in the private sector, like President Obama, simply doesn’t understand.

. . . . Reading the transcript, it was at this point when it occurred to me (Benen) that Mitt Romney is basing his campaign on his private-sector work, but he hasn't the foggiest idea how that business experience relates to the responsibilities of a president.

Jon Chait argued that Romney's response to Halperin's question "is pure incoherence.... Basically Romney is just repeating his premise over and over again. He doesn't say why his experience as a rich business guy better enables him to craft pro-growth policies."

It's because there is no good answer to the question. The premise of Romney's campaign is burdened by a flaw: it doesn't make sense.

Let's say for the sake of conversation that Romney was great at running a private-equity firm. Let's even assume he was the greatest private-equity investor in the country. Hell, let's say he was the single private-equity investor in the history of the world.

The question that Halperin, who hardly leans to the left, was getting at is simple enough: So?


read more: http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/24/11859290-asking-the-right-questions-about-bain-capital

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