It’s all the president has, at this point; make the other guy the issue and hope people forget how truly lousy the economy is.
And, it’s working — to some extent. In very specific voter groups, Obama’s Bain/outsourcing/Swiss bank account attacks are drawing blood and Romney isn’t doing enough to staunch the flow.
In fact, it could be said that the Romney campaign has responded sluggishly. And by asking for another apology from Obama for hinting that he’s felon for filing false SEC papers, he’s beginning to sound more like a whiner than a winner.
Romney called that “Chicago-style politics at its worst” and accused the president, who’s from Chicago, and his campaign of trying to shift attention from the economy and unemployment situation.
In trying to put the matter behind him and return the campaign to his economic arguments, Romney declared he had “no role whatsoever in the management” of the company after he left to take over the Salt Lake City Olympic Games in early 1999.
Romney acknowledged that he would have benefited financially from Bain’s operations even after he left management of the firm to others. That could open him up to criticism that he gained from investment in companies that sent jobs overseas.
“All of the investors participate in the success or failure of various investments, just like you do as a shareholder of an enterprise,” Romney told CBS.
Bain Capital said in a statement that Romney “remained the sole stockholder for a time while formal ownership was being documented and transferred to the group of partners who took over management of the firm in 1999.”
Why doesn’t Romney go after Obama’s total ignorance of private sector business practices? As David Frum points out, you just don’t wind down a multi-billion dollar company in a few months. The paperwork alone takes years to complete, as does SEC approval.
Instead, Romney appears weak for asking for an apology that he can’t really believe he’ll ever get.
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