Bain Backfire: Romney Now Preferred to Handle the Economy

A new Gallup poll out today contains more bad news for the president: A solid majority prefers Mitt Romney on the economy.

By more than 2-1, 63%-29%, those surveyed say Romney’s background in business, including his tenure at the private equity firm Bain Capital, would cause him to make good decisions, not bad ones, in dealing with the nation’s economic problems over the next four years.

The findings raise questions about Obama’s strategy of targeting Bain’s record in outsourcing jobs and hammering Romney for refusing to commit to releasing more than two years of his tax returns. Instead, Americans seem focused on the economy, where disappointment with the fragile recovery and the 8.2% unemployment rate are costing the president.

It was such a smart move by such a smart president to spend millions of dollars in negative ads to rail against Mitt Romney’s business career. Most voters seem to be reacting to those ads with some variation of “Well at least Mitt Romney had a business career.” As one of our commenters noted earlier, Obama’s business career boiled down to protesting against businesses or trying to shut them down. That’s what community organizers do.