COLUMBIA, S.C. - Two of Mitt Romney’s rivals, facing what could be their last opportunity to stop his march to the nomination, redoubled their efforts yesterday to cast him as a heartless executive, setting off alarms in conservative circles.
As the race turned to this conservative battleground state, a group supporting Newt Gingrich said that it will launch a $3.4 million ad campaign in South Carolina today that seeks to paint Romney as a “corporate raider’’ and “vulture’’ who ruined lives in the pursuit of profits. Rick Perry, staking his fortunes on South Carolina, ratcheted up his assault on Romney’s business record.
In a way, Mitt is the perfect president for AmeriKa; a total corporate creation.
“There’s a real difference between venture capitalism and vulture capitalism,’’ he said on Fox News. “Venture capitalism, we like, vulture capitalism, no. And the fact of the matter is, he’s going to have to face up to this at some time or another, and South Carolina is as good a place to draw that line in the sand as any.’’
But Romney pointed to his decisive victory in New Hampshire on Tuesday as evidence that his rivals’ arguments have not resonated with Republican voters who typically celebrate corporate wealth creation.
“I think the evidence from New Hampshire last night, where both the speaker and Rick Perry were both in single digits, suggest this kind of attack on free enterprise is simply not gaining traction for them,’’ Romney said on Fox News....
Wrong again, Mitt.
The attacks have unnerved conservatives. Rush Limbaugh, the influential talk radio host, has said that Gingrich “sounds like Elizabeth Warren.’’ Sean Hannity, the Fox News host, said Perry’s rhetoric “sounds like Occupy Wall Street.’’ And Chris Chocola, president of the Club for Growth, has called the attacks “disgusting.’’
Thus validating their roles as paid shills not on the side of the people.
But Perry and Gingrich appear determined to continue pressing the argument in South Carolina, where they are once again contending that Romney preyed on businesses and drained them of profits.
“I am for entrepreneurship,’’ Gingrich said in Rock Hill, according to The New York Times. “But I am also for the American people’s right to understand how the games are being played: Are they fair to the American people, or are the deals being cut on behalf of Wall Street institutions and very rich people?’’
Newt acting as if he hasn't been part of it all.
PFFFFFFFT!
Perry has pointed to a company in Gaffney that made photo albums and a steel plant in Georgetown that he says were closed after Romney’s private equity firm, Bain Capital, acquired them. But in Georgetown, the chairman of the county Republican Party, Jim Jerow, said the argument is not working.
“To me, it’s like any other business: You have to do what you have to do to survive and whether you bring in an organization like Bain or whatever, that’s what companies do,’’ he said.
“These candidates are just looking for an edge, and they think it’s an edge, and I don’t think it’s an edge,’’ Jerow said. “Every company in the US and elsewhere has to do the things they have to do to keep the doors open. Unfortunately, that’s the process.’’
Then THIS SYSTEM SUCKS, sir!
David Woodard, a GOP consultant and Clemson University political scientist, said he was surprised Romney’s rivals are targeting his business record, not his record as governor.
“This is a critical turning point very early in this campaign because Romney is vulnerable in South Carolina on his record as governor in Massachusetts, but he is strong here when he’s seen as a capitalist businessman,’’ Woodard said. “Seems to me like they are helping him. And they are also helping Ron Paul. If they stay on that message, I’m wondering if they’re not giving [Romney] a club to beat them up with.’’
Not according to the rigged polls put out by the AmeriKan media.
Rick Tyler, a senior adviser to Winning our Future, the pro-Gingrich super PAC that is launching the ads against Romney, said South Carolina voters will be persuaded once they see the emotionally charged spots. The ads, financed by a $5 million donation from the casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, feature blue-collar men and women charging that Romney cost them their jobs and livelihoods....
Also see:
Jon Huntsman, who arrived yesterday in South Carolina after a disappointing third-place finish in New Hampshire, defended Romney’s time at Bain and urged his fellow challengers to question Romney’s policies instead.
Related: Huntsman in the Hunt in New Hampshire
Musta got lost.
“Capitalism without failure isn’t capitalism,’’ Huntsman said, adding, “If you have creative destruction in capitalism, which has always been part of capitalism, it becomes a little disingenuous to take on Bain Capital.’’
Oh, a NEO-CON EUPHEMISM employed by Huntsman. Forget him.
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Related:
"With two Mormons running for president - Romney and Jon Huntsman - not to mention a Broadway show about Mormons, the center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life conducted an extensive, 125-page study on how Mormons, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, see themselves. Researchers surveyed more than 1,000 Mormons around the country on their attitudes toward politics, their communities, and how they think others view them."
Make it one:
"Huntsman was almost invisible in a race often dominated by Romney, a fellow Mormon. One reason was timing. For months, Romney and other declared or expected-to-declare candidates drew media attention and wooed voters in early primary states. Huntsman was half a world away, serving as ambassador to China until he resigned in late April. Nearly two more months would pass before his kickoff speech on June 22 in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty.
To distinguish his candidacy in a crowded field, Huntsman positioned himself as a tax-cutting, budget-balancing chief executive and former business executive who could rise above partisan politics. That would prove to be a hard sell to the conservatives dominating the early voting contests, especially in an election cycle marked by bitter divisions between Republicans and Democrats and a boiling antipathy for Obama....
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Also see: Romney vs. Ron Paul
That is who it is down to, yeah.
"Romney returns fire on two fronts" January 14, 2012|Michael Levenson, Globe Staff
Mitt Romney launched a two-front ad campaign yesterday, defending himself from attacks that paint him as a “vulture capitalist’’ and raise questions about the sincerity of his antiabortion stance.
The twin response is the clearest sign yet that he is taking the attacks seriously and that his defense has not been aggressive enough. Romney is ahead in the polls in South Carolina, but several surveys suggest Newt Gingrich, who has led the assault on Romney, is inching closer.
The attacks by Gingrich and Rick Perry on Romney’s record at Bain Capital, the private equity firm he led from 1984 to 1998, have dominated the race the last several days, putting Romney on the defensive over the crucial issue of job creation.
Romney has denounced the attacks as assaults on free enterprise, adding that he expected Democrats, not fellow Republicans, to assail his record at Bain. The attacks have also outraged some conservatives, who have accused Gingrich and Perry of echoing the language of Occupy Wall Street.
President Obama’s reelection team happily fanned the flames yesterday, accusing Romney of profiting while his firm closed plants, cut jobs, and slashed wages and benefits....
And that has all been turned around under Democrat rule?
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Sorry, readers, but I'm tired of the s*** fooleys of AmeriKan politics as covered by the mouthpiece media.
And the winner?
"Bain often couldn’t lose with buyouts" by Beth Healy | Globe Staff, January 14, 2012
Mitt Romney spent much more of his career in leveraged buyouts than in the investments in start-up companies known as venture capital....
With leveraged buyouts, the investment firm purchases a mature company, partially with its money and with debt it transfers to the company. The new owners then usually streamline the business and seek to resell it.
For example, in the same year that Romney invested in Staples, he led the firm in its $200 million acquisition of Accuride, a wheel rim maker that was part of Firestone. Bain put down only $5 million and borrowed the rest, using junk bonds from Drexel Burnham Lambert. Eighteen months later, Bain resold the company and reaped $121 million in its first taste of the big time in the go-go 1980s.
Soon after, Romney steered Bain Capital more toward debt-driven buyouts. There was more money at stake and less risk for Bain than betting on untested technology.
Venture capital is “absolutely more risky’’ than buyouts, said Howard Anderson, a venture investor and former entrepreneur who teaches at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
You know where venture capital comes from?
Related: VenCap Vroom-Vroom
No wonder tuition costs are rising and your pension statements have stagnated, America.
For one, he said, buyouts often involve companies that have been in business for a long time. Second, buyout firms tend to take profits out of deals quickly, even having the target companies take on enormous loans to pay the investors back.
“These guys have figured out a way to make money even if the company loses money,’’ Anderson said. “It’s heads we win, tails we win. Not always - but they can do that.’’
We call it a RIGGED GAME here!
Romney and his former partners at Bain Capital have said they make the most money by growing companies, not shrinking them. But they often make money no matter what.
Take a giant deal like Domino’s Pizza Inc. Bain led the $1.1 billion deal in 1998, putting down about $385 million in cash. The rest of the money was borrowed. Then, as Bain wanted to get its money out over the years, it had Domino’s borrow more to pay it back. Bain reaped a 500 percent return. Domino’s has $1.5 billion in debt on its books.
You know, this does NOT SEEM like a GOOD BUSINESS MODEL to ME!
Romney has been criticized for doing deals at Bain Capital where the firm made money but employees were laid off and the company was left with large debt loads, and sometimes bankruptcy.
And Mitt says that created jobs?
In a 1994 deal to acquire Dade International, an Illinois medical equipment company, Bain invested $27 million and made roughly eight times its money. But it also loaded up the company with $1.6 billion in debt; 1,700 people would lose their jobs, and the company briefly filed for bankruptcy protection in 2002.
Bain counters that Dade emerged from bankruptcy stronger and growing; it was acquired by Siemens for $7 billion in 2007.
Did that REPAIR all the SHATTERED LIVES caused by the deal?
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And when it came time to pay taxes....
"Romney reveals his income tax burden: about 15%" January 18, 2012|By Matt Viser, Globe Staff
FLORENCE, S.C. - Mitt Romney said yesterday that he has been paying close to a 15 percent tax rate on his income in recent years, a rate that is lower than what many Americans pay and one that fueled further attempts by his Republican rivals to cast the former Massachusetts governor - the wealthiest candidate in the race - as out of touch.
With just four days left before the primary in South Carolina, which is beset by high unemployment and typically ranks among the nation’s poorest states, Romney faced intensifying scrutiny of his wealth, how he earned it, and how he talks about it.
He also is being placed at the center of a national debate over taxes and wealth that is likely to escalate as the campaign marches closer to the general election. The battle has been highlighted by the Occupy Wall Street movement, as well as by business magnate Warren Buffett, who has argued that, as a billionaire, he should not be taxed at a lower rate than his secretary....
“I get speaker’s fees from time to time, but not very much,’’ he added.
According to his most recent financial disclosure statement, he earned nearly $375,000 for nine speaking engagements from February 2010 to February 2011. The fees ranged from $11,475 to $68,000. Those statements also show his assets total $190 million to $250 million....
He REALLY IS A PSYCHOPATHIC CORPORATE PUKE!
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And he is HIDING ASSETS OFFSHORE?
"Heat rises as S.C. vote nears; Gingrich gaining in poll, Romney steps up attacks" by Matt Viser | Globe Staff, January 18, 2012
SPARTANBURG, S.C. - Last night, ABC News reported Romney is storing a portion of his fortune in offshore accounts.
Romney has as much as $8 million invested in at least 12 funds listed on a Cayman Islands registry, according to the ABC report. He also has an investment valued at between $5 million and $25 million that securities records list as having been housed offshore in the Caymans, which is notorious as a tax haven....
A Romney spokeswoman disputed the ABC report and said the candidate was paying the same amount of US taxes on the offshore accounts. His campaign also said his money is held in a blind trust that he does not control.
Top Romney advisers also dismissed the furor over the tax releases, with one saying, “More people care about the fluoridation of water than care about this issue.’’
At their own peril (thank God for the rigged voting machines, 'eh?).
Nonetheless, the news is likely to provide more fodder for Romney’s rivals....
A CNN/Time poll released yesterday showed Gingrich was narrowing what had been a sizable Romney lead, with the former House speaker at 23 percent to Romney’s 33 percent. Former senator Rick Santorum trailed further, with 16 percent; Representative Ron Paul had 13 percent; and Governor Rick Perry of Texas had 6 percent....
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Related: Nominating Romney Means Return of Bush
Those were great times, weren't they?
