Worst Talking Point, Best New Meme: Retroactive Mitt...

[On the Road]

47. Romney is Really a Terrible Campaigner

Especially since there was a much better way of explaining what happened than saying he resigned retroactively.

Reading between the lines, it sounds like Romney went to run the Olympics without changing his title and functioned like an outside director for several years. Outside directors attend board meetings quarterly or semiannually and aren't really involved in the day to day running of the company. The $100k would have been compensation as a director. After several years, he formally relinquished the title of CEO and president.

I am sure Romney is trying to weasel out of any involvement in Bain's business decisions from 1999 on. But he did it by coming up with an explanation that immediately became the stuff of political jokes.

This is one reason that CEO's are generally the best candidates. They are used to a business environment in which they get the benefit of the doubt rather than a political process where everything they say and do gets put under the microscope and quickly becomes a source of political attacks.