After three and a half years, President Obama's achievements are
few, and his biggest, the passing of Obamacare, is consistently
viewed negatively by a majority of the American people. The economy
is still stuck in the mud as both businesses and consumers lack
confidence. So it is not surprising that team Obama is going
negative early. And it is also no surprise, given the creativity he
used in forming his own "personal narrative," that his attempt to
redefine Mitt Romney as a black-hearted capitalist "outsourcer" has
little basis in reality. Indeed, Obama's attacks on Romney are
manufactured in sweatshops in the Twilight Zone.
According to Obama and his reelection team, Mitt Romney, who successfully ran the venture capital firm, Bain Capital, prior to becoming governor of Massachusetts, is a rich corporate villain, responsible for destroying companies and shipping American jobs off-shore. Romney is the "outsourcer-in-chief." To back up these claims, the Obama team points to a few examples of Bain-funded companies that either went bankrupt or created jobs in foreign countries (it's not clear that jobs were actually "outsourced" from America) during a time that Mitt Romney no longer exercised operational control at Bain. Despite detailed rebuttals from Romney, several of the companies cited, and even by third party arbiters (such as FactCheck.org) showing the allegations to be false, Obama has chosen to keep to the narrative. The Obama team is more interested in how it sells, not if it is true, and for now they think this is the best thing they've got going.
Though these attacks do keep Romney "off message" and deflect attention from the real issues in the race -- the budget deficit, the floundering economy, Obamacare, America's retreat from world leadership -- it seems unlikely that they will have long-term effectiveness. The record is just not there to give the attacks credibility, and even if there was any substance to the charges, the underlying argument -- that Mitt Romney is cruel and unfeeling for closing an unprofitable business -- is rather hollow.
Read more: http://spectator.org/archives/2012/07/17/outsourcing-reality
According to Obama and his reelection team, Mitt Romney, who successfully ran the venture capital firm, Bain Capital, prior to becoming governor of Massachusetts, is a rich corporate villain, responsible for destroying companies and shipping American jobs off-shore. Romney is the "outsourcer-in-chief." To back up these claims, the Obama team points to a few examples of Bain-funded companies that either went bankrupt or created jobs in foreign countries (it's not clear that jobs were actually "outsourced" from America) during a time that Mitt Romney no longer exercised operational control at Bain. Despite detailed rebuttals from Romney, several of the companies cited, and even by third party arbiters (such as FactCheck.org) showing the allegations to be false, Obama has chosen to keep to the narrative. The Obama team is more interested in how it sells, not if it is true, and for now they think this is the best thing they've got going.
Though these attacks do keep Romney "off message" and deflect attention from the real issues in the race -- the budget deficit, the floundering economy, Obamacare, America's retreat from world leadership -- it seems unlikely that they will have long-term effectiveness. The record is just not there to give the attacks credibility, and even if there was any substance to the charges, the underlying argument -- that Mitt Romney is cruel and unfeeling for closing an unprofitable business -- is rather hollow.
Read more: http://spectator.org/archives/2012/07/17/outsourcing-reality
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