Mitt Romney spent Friday on a media blitz, attacking Obama for trying to make an issue out of Romney’s involvement with Bain Capital after February 1999. How did he do in defusing the Obama campaign’s accusations?
As you can see, not well. In fact, Forbes magazine, not exactly a hotbed of liberalism, has a list of 35 questions that Mitt Romney should answer before we can put this matter to rest:
If you don’t want to watch the video, there’s a list of the questions here. They are good questions indeed.
UPDATE: We now have evidence that Romney committed perjury — from Romney himself. Romney signed a federal financial disclosure form claiming that he was not involved “in any way” with Bain after February 1999. But in 2002, when he was trying to prove residency in Mass. so he could run for governor, he claimed that there was a “transition period” and that he spent “a good deal of time” traveling back to Mass. even going to board meetings. Lying either time would be perjury — a felony — so which time did he lie, because both cannot be true.
UPDATE 2: Even Fox News says that Mitt Romney has royally screwed up and “only has himself to blame”.
11 Comments
If there were a like and share button I would use it !
As IK knows well, anyone that knows anything about how companies are run would tell you it is simply inconceivable that someone who was the sole owner of a multi-millionare dollar company would have NO involvement in investment decisions made by that companmy. IT WAS HIS MONEY. It is equally inconceivable that someone can be the CEO and President (both roles with clearly defined, legal responsbilities) and have NO involvement at all for three years.
It is perfectly reasonable to believe that Romney had no “day to day” management responsbilities in the period. It is also perfectly reaosnable to believe that many business decisions including hiring, firing, and even releasing of previously committed funds could take place with Romney having no detailed information about them at all. And, finally, for those types of decisions, it is perfectly reaosnable that may have delegated his authority to others and NOT kept himself in the command loop. I’ve done it – I am pretty sure IK has done it.
But all that said, if MY company of which I was the SOLE owner was about to risk millions of MY DOLLARS on an investment decision, or on a grand strategy to fix the investment (like sending all the jobs to China) and I was NOT in the command loop for those, it would be professional malpractice at best and fiscal inasanity at the worst.
That leaves us with the following four options for Romney’s Bain situation:
1) He lied about it
2) He committed a crime or crimes by lying to the SEC
3) He is incompetent
4) He is crazy
None of these, frankly, make him a good candidate for President.
JamesM, there is a “Share / Save” button on every article. Please do submit postings from Political Irony to your favorite sites.
Arthanyel, what kills me about Romney is that his explanations roughly fall into two story lines: a) he was way too busy saving the Olympics to even have a minute to spare on the company that he founded and ran — his baby — and for which he had fiduciary responsibility and was trying to sell; or b) these things are simply too complicated for little people like us to understand (I guess concepts like lying on SEC forms or misrepresenting management to investors simply doesn’t apply to people like Romney).
I’m glad Forbes doesn’t buy either of these arguments.
Questions number 15 and 16 seem to speak to another important point. Even if I believe that Romney was way too busy saving the Olympics and had absolutely no input on any decisions at Bain Capital, he still hand picked the people who were making those decisions. Decisions like investing in a company like Stericycle that disposed of aborted fetuses, or decisions to ship jobs to other countries and lay off American workers. Obviously, a president doesn’t make every decision in his administration — he has to appoint other people to make those decisions. So what kind of people would Romney appoint in his administration, if he now totally disavows any responsibility for decisions made by the people he hand picked to run Bain Capital?
Does the buck stop anywhere near Mitt Romney?
You must not have heard that in 2002, he retired retroactively back to 1999. That ought to clear things up!
Next time I get pulled over for speeding, I’m considering using this brilliant defense to try to convince the cop that I’m at home retroactively and cannot be held accountable for the speed of my vehicle.
I wonder where the uniforms worn by Team USA in the 2002 Olympics were made.
As usual, a quick Google check shows that they were “apparently” made in Canada. Not quite as bad as China I suppose.
JustMe – this year’s Team USA uniforms were made in China. I understand that the 2014 uniforms will be made in the US.
I thought the Forbes questions could have been a bit more concise, but it’s refreshing to see someone, anyone, pointing out the types of things that are seen by pretty regular folks. The mainstream media again has clearly demonstrated that it does not know how to ask follow-up questions that actually have meat on them.
My sense is this is a true character issue – not one that should simply get swept under the rug. One way or another, Romney and/or his company are lying. Plain and simple. All to cover up his role in his company exporting jobs overseas. Sad.
IK – exactly. Having done turnarounds (and the Olympics was a turnaround with a fixed deadline) I can certainly appreciate how busy he likely was, and that he probably was only periperhally aware of most of Bain’s activities in the period. But the idea that Bain could invest millions of HIS MONEY into companies and send them overseas without his having at the very least a VETO is simply ridiculous.
And his handling of the controversy has been very poor. Even Republicans are publicly demanding he release his tax returns now.
If Romney’s campaign can’t get ahold of the news cycle and deal with this he’s going to have an anchor around his neck all the way to November. The Obama campaign has clearly decided that one of the key themes in the election is “Romney is not an example of the solution, he is an example of the problem” and they are going to keep pushing it.
1032, when Romney retroactively retired, did he pay back the salary they had given him?
From what I have read of the Mormon Religion, Mormons are not allowed by the Religion to lie. Any Mormons reading this who can clarify this?
Ebdoug, Google “lying for the Lord.” Many people (both Mormons and non-Mormons) make the accusation that the Mormon Church encourages the practice of lying–sometimes by omission or diversion–to protect the image of the religion and its followers. I don’t know enough about the religion to state whether or not this accusation holds water, but it is out there.
Egads, I feel like I’m pulling a Glenn Beck-ish “I’m not saying this is true, but some people believe that…” and that’s not my intent. I neither advocate nor oppose the accusation.
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