Scott Rasmussen: “McCain actually holds a slight lead over Romney among voters who name the economy as the top issue”—Nutting of MarketWatch: “Seven of 10 Republicans say the best thing the government can do to help the economy is get out of the way, which is more McCain’s view than Romney’s”

January 29, 2008 in 2008, analysis, argument, campaign communications, campaign management, conservatism, election 2008, GOP, incompetence, media, mitt romney, polls, republicans, rhetoric, romney, strategy, stupidity, the dark soul of Mitt Romney, triumph of unreason
Tags: Bain Capital, capital, capitalism, duplicity, economy, equity-sector, Florida, jobs, lies, marketwatch, rex nutting, scott rasmussen, Sen. John McCain

[…] “It’s the perfect opportunity for a Wall Street Republican to make the case that what the country needs now is good business mind, not a former war hero,” writes Rex Nutting, Washington bureau chief of MarketWatch, in a MarketWatch article titled Romney running for tycoon in chief; Commentary: Will business background be a plus?

Unfortunately for Romney, that appeal isn’t working in the Republican primaries.

Polls show that national security concerns continue to rank much higher among Republican voters, even if worries about the economy are growing. According to the Rasmussen Poll, Republican voters in Florida would rather pick a commander in chief than a chief executive for the U.S. economy.

Romney’s support has soared over the past two weeks, especially in Florida. He’s tied with Sen. John McCain in the latest polls ahead of Tuesday’s vote. But the Romney surge isn’t related to the bad news about the economy; rather, he’s picking up conservative voters stranded by Fred Thompson’s withdrawal from the race and Huckabee’s partial pullback from Florida.

Romney leads McCain among conservative voters, and he’s hoping that his message of economic competence could gain him support among voters who see themselves as moderates, where McCain holds a sizable lead.

Romney has been going directly after McCain, his chief rival for the nomination, accusing him of being out of touch on the economy. He has mocked McCain for saying “economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should.”

McCain has fired back, saying that while Romney was making millions and working for “profit,” he was serving “patriotism.”

So far, the economic themes haven’t been registering for Romney.

According to pollster Scott Rasmussen, “McCain actually holds a slight lead over Romney among voters who name the economy as the top issue.” Seven of 10 Republicans say the best thing the government can do to help the economy is get out of the way, which is more McCain’s view than Romney’s.

Maybe Romney understands the economy, but it looks as if it’s McCain who understands Republicans.

If Romney can get past McCain and win the nomination, he’ll try to persuade independents and hesitant Democrats that his business background qualifies him to be president.

But if he does make it past the convention, it’ll be an uphill struggle to run as a tycoon after the mess Wall Street has made of the economy, with its overhyped dotcoms, its phony accounting, its bloated bonuses, and its toxic mortgages […]

The emphases are ours, all ours.

We heartily concur. See:

• Gavin: “Throughout his 15-year career at Bain Capital, which bought, sold, and merged dozens of companies, Romney had other chances to fight to save jobs, but didn’t—His ultimate responsibility was to make money for Bain’s investors, former partners said.”
• Flaherty: “Layoffs are a common result of private equity takeovers, with [Romney’s] Bain Capital no exception”
• Romney in FL wants credit for being a major player in the financial services sector—at the very moment that that sector is crashing and taking the US economy down with it

yours &c.
dr. g.d.

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What if Bain Capital baked cakes and pies instead of, say, spending their time undermining national security?

October 22, 2007 in 2008, analysis, campaign finance, campaign management, election 2008, GOP, mitt romney, policy, republicans, romney, strategy, the dark soul of Mitt Romney, triumph of unreason
Tags: Bain Capital, cakes and pies, capital, China, corruption, culinary delights, deserts that could compromise national security, equity-sector, good and evil, John from the Solomons, Matthew Mosk, moles, morons, pastry chefs, political patronage, Robert F. White, rubes, security, Washington Post

“At key moments during his rise in politics, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has returned to the same reliable source for money, advice and corporate muscle: Bain Capital, the investment company he founded in the 1980s,” writes Matthew Mosk with the able assistance of John from the Solomons in a WaPo release titled Cash, Advice on Tap at Romney’s Old Firm; Investment Company Has Been a Source of Donations and Personnel for Candidate

The business executives who helped him start the firm and cement its early investment deals were called back to duty when he ran for Senate in 1994, revived the 2002 Winter Olympics, won the Massachusetts governorship and launched his bid for the White House. They fully expect another call should he win the presidency.
   
“I’m on my fifth ‘once in a lifetime opportunity’ with Mitt,” said Robert F. White, one of Romney’s early partners at Bain whose latest assignment is as chairman of Romney’s presidential campaign.

Romney frequently invokes his success at Bain, the team he assembled there and the shrewd decision-making that helped turn struggling businesses into gold mines. And in what he regards as perhaps his greatest personal triumph — reviving the tarnished Salt Lake City Olympics — his Bain colleagues played an important role … etc., etc.

Wouldn’t it be great if Bain Capital used their powers for good and not, say, evil? What if they focused their efforts on baking tasty cakes and savory pies? Then their enterprises would be less disastrous and more delicious. No, this doesn’t follow. Even if they all became master pastry chefs they would still probably find a way to destroy the GOP through a Manchurian Candidate like Romney, and still find the time to undermine national security. See: yet more Romney corruption: Bain Capital and Ren Zhengfei of Huawei

yours &c.
dr. g.d.

Romney’s millions—more on the equity-sector candidate from the NYT

October 1, 2007 in 2008, analysis, campaign finance, campaign management, conservatism, election, election 2008, GOP, mitt romney, republicans, romney, the dark soul of Mitt Romney
Tags: Bain & Company, Bain Capital, Bill Bain, capital, capitalism, connections, David D. Kirkpatrick, economy, equity-sector, NYT, post-capitalism, Romney's biography, Romney's origins, wealth

“WASHINGTON, June 3 — Mitt Romney owes his nearly $350 million fortune and his political career to a delicate negotiation with his boss in the summer of 1983,” writes the estimable David D. Kirkpatrick in a NTY release titled Romney’s Fortunes Tied to Business Riches

His boss, Bill Bain, founder of the Boston consulting firm Bain & Company, called Mr. Romney into his corner office to say that the partners had picked him to start an investment fund to cash in on the huge gains their clients were making in the stock market.

To Mr. Bain’s surprise, Mr. Romney, then 36, seemed wary. He worried about giving up his comfortable salary for a venture that might fail and, later, that investing would pose conflicts for a consulting firm.

Mr. Bain had been determined not to cede any control of the investment fund, but over months of talks Mr. Romney persuaded him to do just that. Mr. Romney emerged as head of an independent sister company, Bain Capital. And Mr. Bain protected him financially while assuming the most risk.

Two decades later, Bain Capital is one of the nation’s five largest private equity firms, and Mr. Romney, who left its management eight years ago, is making his success there a cornerstone of his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.

Citing his business experience, he urges voters to reject “lifetime politicians” who “have never run a corner store, let alone the largest enterprise in the world.”

Mr. Romney, though, never ran a corner store or a traditional business. Instead, he excelled as a deal maker, a buyer and seller of companies, a master at the art of persuasion that he demonstrated in the talks that led to the forming of Bain Capital.

“Mitt ran a private equity firm, not a cement company,” said Eric A. Kriss, a former Bain Capital partner. “He was not a businessman in the sense of running a company,” Mr. Kriss said, adding, “He was a great presenter, a great spokesman and a great salesman.”

Supporters of Mr. Romney argue that those skills also equip him for public office, whether as governor of Massachusetts, which he was for four years, or as president … more

We have harped upon this string for weeks and weeks—finally the media is catching up. Romney is not a business person as he claims, at least not in any conventional sense. He is an equity-sector non-capitalist, one of the new ruling class in an era that Drucker once referred to as “pension-fund socialism,” the era of vast pools of spare money larger than any capitalist of the so-called capitalist era could ever imagine, pools of money alienated from their “owners” (fund investors, pensioners) and managed by well-connected professional elites, e.g. Willard Milton Romney. (This is why Drucker referred to this era as “post-capitalist.”) For more on this theme, see:

Romney and private equity: the new ruling class

yours &c.
dr. g.d.