I admit I have been critical of Ron Paul in the past, and still am regarding foreign policy, but I admire his forthright honesty in defense of Mitt Romney today. That’s a rare thing for a politician, particularly in the thick of the fight, but Paul seems to be a man who means what he says, good, bad or indifferent. He had this to say about the criticism of Romney’s Bain Capital business dealings by the former governor’s Republican opponents:
“I think they’re wrong. I think they’re totally misunderstanding the way the market works,” Paul told me. [Jonathan Karl @ The Note] “They are either just demagoguing or they don’t have the vaguest idea how the market works.”
Paul also came to Romney’s defense for saying “I like to be able to fire people.”
“I think they’re unfairly attacking him on that issue because he never really literally said that,” Paul said. “They’ve taken him way out of context. … He wants to fire companies.”
In Paul’s view, Romney is right to say that he created jobs by restructuring companies.
“I think they’re way overboard on saying that he wants to fire people, he doesn’t care, Paul said. “You save companies, you save jobs when you reorganize companies that are going to go bankrupt. And they don’t understand that.”
Of course, the “I like to fire people” misquotation is a bunch of political bushwa that is probably costing Romney a pile of votes as you read this post. As the CEO of a small company for six years now (hard to believe!), I have been called on to fire a few people. I can attest to you, it stinks. It’s the worst part of the job. Whatever the pros and cons of Mitt Romney that he likes firing his own employees is highly unlikely. If you read the original, it’s clear he was talking about getting rid of insurance companies who were giving him a bad deal. That’s something that would make me smile too.
The prevaricating candidates who are attacking Romney for this are doing Barack Obama’s work. No one else’s. And Paul’s right – they’re demagoguing.
(NOTE: Roger L. Simon will be on the Hugh Hewitt Radio Show today at 4:30 Pacific to discuss the election.)
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