Walt Shapiro (New Republic) asks - "Does Romney's Bain Record Matter?" [View all]

[HughBeaumont]

http://news.yahoo.com/romney-s-record-at-bain-capital--does-it-matter-.html

The issue will be the bane of our existence until November. Here it is only May – and the back-and-forth over Mitt Romney’s career in private equity at Bain Capital is already as confused as Facebook’s initial stock offering. Buffeted by TV ads, web videos, feigned outraged and zigzagging Democrats, voters undoubtedly are stunned by the sudden outbreak of high-decibel arguments over Romney’s business career.

But do these even matter? Amongst the background noise emerges the real question: What parts of Romney’s business experience would influence his actions in the Oval office? That is a central question that voters should evaluate, although finding the answers will not be easy given the frenzied spin from both sides.

(snip)

This is who Romney is -- a portrait in business success rather than selfless altruism. Coming out of that experience, Romney’s underlying problem with voters appears to be his inability to make the imaginative leap to grasp how other people live. In late April, Romney urged Ohio college students to follow their dreams: “Take a shot, go for it, take a risk. Get the education. Borrow money, if you have to, from your parents. Start a business.” These are laudable sentiments, except for one tin-ear detail: Most American families do not have a bankroll of, say, $50,000 or $100,000 sitting on the sidelines waiting to be loaned to the first child ready to launch a new business.

(snip)

This process of elimination inevitably leads back to Bain Capital. What matters is not Bain’s job-creation record but the values that Romney absorbed on the job. Romney’s belief in the creative destruction of capitalism, his conviction that a dynamic economy produces winners and, yes, losers would undoubtedly shape his presidency. That is his economic vision – and it is directly linked to his years at Bain.

Oh fuck off, Walt . . . it does SO matter. Government is not a business nor should it be run as such. Two different animals entirely despite every GOP idiot from here to K Street thinking America would be so much better off. We've seen this tragedy before for eight years and look what ruin it caused. An insincere and tone-deaf joker like Rmoney would be no different since at Bain, he won whether the company won OR lost. The loads of corporate-fattened cronies he'd stack his cabinet with, as Bewsh 43 did, would profit handsomely while social programs get gutted.