And another Dem jumps off the Bain attack. Former President Bill Clinton appeared on CNN Thursday night, and called Mitt Romney’s business career “sterling.”
CLINTON: So I don’t think that we ought to get in the position where we say this is bad work, this is good work. I think, however, the real issue ought to be what has Governor Romney advocated in the campaign that he will do as president? What has President Obama done and what does he propose to do? How do these things stack up against each other, that’s the most relevant thing. There’s no question that in terms of getting up and going to the office, and you know, basically performing the essential functions of the office, a man who has been governor and had a sterling business career crosses the qualification threshold.
The Bain attack was intended to put Romney on the defensive and please Obama’s leftist base. It may have achieved the latter, but certainly has not achieved the former. It has backfired like very few other political attack attempts have. Just working from memory, the following Democrats have disavowed it in addition to former President Bill Clinton: Newark Mayor Cory Booker, former Rep. Harold Ford, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, ex car czar Steve Rattner, both of New York’s senators, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, Sen. Joe Manchin, Lanny Davis, Sen. Chris Coons, MA Gov. Deval Patrick, former PA governor and DNC chair Ed Rendell, and former Rep. Artur Davis. Davis has since switched sides to join the GOP. There may be other Democrats out there who have also criticized it. Rank and file conservative Democrats surely find it repulsive and many at the local level may be thinking of following Artur Davis’ lead.
As for Romney being put on the defensive by bringing up Bain, it’s safe to say that that has not happened at all. Thursday’s event at Solyndra was an aggressive stroke of genius for which the Obama campaign has had no response.
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