Mitt Romney is in bad shape even after winning the New Hampshire primary due to his inability to properly explain his former business career as head of Bain Capital; while GOP “deciders” are meeting in Texas this weekend to find a replacement to run against President Obama.
PBS broke the news Jan. 13 that the Republican base is so unhappy with Mitt Romney’s defense of his Bain Capital dealings that senior GOP “deciders” are meeting this weekend in Texas to find someone else they can back for their nomination to run against President Obama. “A group of social conservatives, evangelicals, are putting together a meeting together in Texas this weekend. And we're told what they're doing is looking for a conservative alternative to Romney,” reported PBS Jan. 13 as the lead story nationwide. In turn, New York Times columnist David Brooks explained that Romney has been “taking some heat, and he hasn’t been doing particularly well. He’s been taking heat on the one issue that I do think he is actually vulnerable on, and that's Bain Capital.”
Moreover, Republican Brooks noted that “there’s the political perception” with Romney viewed as that richest 1% who doesn’t get what everyday Americans are going through. “If ever Wall Street and financial guys are out of favor, this is the moment,” and Romney “has not been particularly good at responding. He hasn't told a very good and swift story about what Bain did and how it turned people around.”
Romney not sounding presidential
As for Romney’s claim that he “created 100,000 jobs,” Republican Brooks told PBS Jan. 13 that “I don't really think that number is solid, all these – ‘I created this many jobs,’ all those numbers are bogus for every candidate.
Both the Obama White House and the Gingrich campaign have noted how Romney has not sounded “presidential” in his responses this week about the former company he co-founded, Bain Capital. In turn, political experts – speaking on PBS, BBC News and other major media – said Romney hasn’t told a “very good and swift story about what Bain did and how it turned people around.”
While Romney has had some broad rebuttals, such as, “If you attack Bain, if you attack LBOs, you’re attacking capitalism,” but, overall, experts say Romney has sounded weak and “not presidential” in handling the attacks against Bain Capital.
Brooks also writes in The New York Times that Romney being one of those “leveraged buyout” millionaires, makes him appear to voters as part of those big corporations that got massive bailouts, and also a partner with Wall Street that’s been the focus for the recent “Occupy Wall Street” movement.
Romney: "Occupy" poster subject
For instance, the “Occupy” movement has been skeptical about money in politics at both the presidential level, and even the local level, where rich PAC’s “buy elections” like so many nickels or dimes in their pocket, stated a hand-made “Occupy Eugene” sign that’s now put on display in downtown Eugene.
Thus, it’s no surprise that a staunch Republican such as Brooks said on PBS Jan. 13 that “this whole Bain issue… is a political vulnerability.”
In turn, Gingrich’s claim that presidential hopeful Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital “engaged in behavior where they looted a company, leaving behind 1,700 unemployed people,” is not going away, with hundreds of thousands of references to the Gingrich claim about Romney’s shameless exploits at Bain Capital now on the Internet.
Gingrich pouring it on in South Carolina
The Gingrich campaign is spending “millions” on political TV ads exposing Romney’s Bain Capital dealings that political experts say he can’t seem to defend.
Gingrich’s political ads in South Carolina this week mirror the mean spirited nature of the Republicans “greedy underbelly” where “these rich cats want more power and they will do their hardest to get it,” explains Blake, an “Occupy Eugene” protester during a recent Huliq interview about Romney and his Bain Capital dealings that have been dubbed “Romneygate” by some political experts.
In turn, the Gingrich TV political ads being played in South Carolina this weekend have called Romney a “corporate raider,” and Romney’s company, Bain Capital, “more ruthless than Wall Street.”
Meanwhile, what many out-of-work and homeless Americans are also calling as shameless is the revelation that Romney currently has six homes that average $10 million each; and “are all big, all wealthy, with long, long driveways which says I’m rich, I’m important with all the bells and whistles,” explained a real estate expert on NBC’s Today Show Jan. 13 after showcasing Romney’s numerous estates as part of a “candidate cribs” report.
The Gingrich ads attacking Romney as Bain Capital’s founder also quotes a large number of workers who claim to have lost their jobs after their companies were acquired by Bain, which Romney led from 1984 through 1998.
"He pulled the rug out from under our plant," one man says. Another man says, "Mitt Romney and them guys, they don't care who I am."
And the 30-second ad closes with a woman saying, "I feel that is the man that destroyed us."
Romney part of the ultra-rich GOP class
Syndicated columnist Mark Shields also noted on PBS Jan. 13 that “Republicans, being the party of the well-born and well-off and being seen that way, like to nominate candidates who come from humble origins, whether it's Dwight Eisenhower, or Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan.>
In turn, Shields said “Mitt Romney would be the wealthiest candidate ever in the history of this country if he's nominated by the Republican Party. And he made his money himself, but he made it in a way that Americans don't understand. I mean, there's no face of private equity, other than private helicopters and private villas on the beach. That's the one side of it, and then company towns with working families who have been -- lost their jobs.”
Also, he said, Romney is now using his experience at Bain Capital as “his credential to run for president. This is a man who was governor of a blue state who governed effectively with a legislature of the other party. He doesn't use that credential. He's used the credential of, I'm a business guy, and, therefore, this is open -- I agree with David. He has not been agile and he's not been convincing in the ways he's handled it and tried to say, oh, it's an attack of envy or it's an attack on the capitalistic system. That is not the response. He has to answer it.”
Image source of one of Bain Capital’s “buyouts” – the Dunkin’ Brands of donuts for $2.4 billion in 2005. Although one would think that Joe “Bag of Donuts” Americans would relate to Mitt Romney -- who hasn’t been able to explain away the “Bain Capital” attacks from his fellow Republicans who are also running for the White House in 2012 – there’s been no way to explain away “the donuts” or other Bain Capital companies that have been taken over by Romney’s company. Photo courtesy Wikipedia
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