Rove-Romney Camp, GOP Likely Genuinely Perplexed That Stephanie Cutter has not Apologized

[JDPriestly]

64. The problem for Romney is that for as long as he allowed his name

to be used by Bain, as long as he permitted Bain to claim him as their CEO, etc., he was responsible, publicly and legally (it would seem to me) to people with whom Bain had dealings.

The argument that Romney kept his titles for several years but wasn't really doing anything suggests that Romney is quite willing to take credit for doing work he is not doing. It also suggests that he is willing to trick people into thinking they are dealing with him when they are dealing with someone else. Romney is very wealthy, and by keeping his name on the some or all of the official documentation of Bain Capital, he was leading investors and creditors to believe that his money and business acumen were behind that company.

So, Gillespie can explain that Romney was just named in legal documents because Romney was trying to get a better golden parachute out of Bain, but that does not fly with me. If Romney's name was on the Bain documents filed with the SEC, then people who dealt with Bain had the right to believe they were dealing with Romney. That looks like misrepresentation to me. But then, what do I know.

But that is why I think that Romney cannot so easily gloss over this mess he made. If he had just been an employee, he could have done that. But the papers filed with the SEC came close to claiming he personified the company. He can't now come to us and claim he had nothing to do with running the company when at the time, a reasonable person could have believed he was the company.

And then, there is the fact that this is probably just the first in a series of scandals about how Romney managed his companies in at times a despicable manner. That is how fortunes are made. That is a sad but true fact for not all, but for many fortunes.