Today, the Romney for President campaign released a new web video titled "Big Bain Backfire."
The new video is in response to President Obama's attacks on Romney's competent exercise of free enterprise that have triggered a backlash among some prominent Obama supporters.
One of Obama's former economic advisers, Steven Rattner, called Obama's renewed attack on Mitt Romney's time in private equity "unfair."
"I think the ad is unfair." Rattner said. …"[Bain Capital] did it superbly well, acting within the rules, acting very responsibly. This is part of capitalism, this is part of life. I don't think there's anything Bain Capital did that they need to be embarrassed about.'" (Byron Tau, Ex-Obama Adviser: Latest Anti-Romney Ad Is 'Unfair,' Politico, 5/14/12.)
Obama supporter Newark Mayor Cory Booker said he was very uncomfortable with the Obama attack on Romney:
"I have to say from a very personal level I'm not about to sit here and indict private equity. To me, it’s just, we're getting to a ridiculous point in America. Especially, I know, I live in a state where pension funds, unions and other people are investing in companies like Bain Capital. If you look at the totality of Bain Capital’s record, they've done a lot to support businesses, to grow businesses, and this to me, I’m very uncomfortable with.” (NBC’s "Meet The Press [video]," 5/20/12.)
Mayor Booker's comments so undermine the Obama attack on Romney that President Obama’s chief political strategist, David Axelrod, "hammered" Booker's comments. Axelrod's scolding resulted in Booker trying to walk it all back.
Former Democrat Tennessee Congressman Harold Ford (D-TN) said Mayor Booker's criticism of Obama's Romney attack was right:
Former Tennessee Rep. Harold Ford said Monday that he would not have walked back New Jersey Mayor Cory Booker's surprising comments criticizing the Obama campaign for attacking private equity. "I would not have backed off the comments if I were Mayor Booker," Ford, a Democrat, said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "The substance of his comments on 'Meet the Press,' I agree with the core of it. I would not have backed them out… private equity’s not a bad thing. As a matter of fact, private equity is a good thing in many, many instances.'" (Tim Mak, "Ex-Rep. Ford: Booker Was Right," Politico, 5/21/12.)
Obama supporter and bundler Don Peebles, said that any attack and vilification of a particular industry is not okay:
"Peebles, who is sometimes described as the largest-scale African-American real estate developer in the country, told BuzzFeed that he was wary of the ads by the Obama campaign and the pro-Obama Super PAC Priorities USA which have attacked Bain Capital. 'Any type of attack and vilification of a particular industry is not okay to begin with." (Zeke Miller, "Obama Bundler Decries 'Villification'of Private Equity," (BuzzFeed, 5/15/12.)
The Romney campaign took this friendly fire from Obama supporters Booker, Ford and Rattner and rolled it up into an effective ad against Obama who has to run on his record of failed economic policies. You can watch the "Big Bain Backfire" above.
It is no surprise that the Obama campaign has resorted to misleading attacks that have been disavowed by its own supporters. They started their campaign against McCain in a similar fashion. It took a multitude of fact checkers calling Obama's attacks against Senator McCain everything from "distortions," to "rank falsehood" to "outright lying."
During Obama's presidency, the nation has lost 572,000 jobs and nearly 23 million Americans are unemployed, underemployed or have given up looking for work. The unemployment rate has stayed above 8 percent for 39 consecutive month, so far.
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