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The Spectacle Blog
Jeff Lord is aghast that Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry would criticize Mitt Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital.
Now that Romney appears to be edging closer to the GOP nomination, are conservatives now prohibited from criticizing capitalism? Is Romney’s private sector record off limits? Isn’t there a difference between being pro-market and pro-business? I mean it’s not like this is the first time Romney has been criticized in this manner. It was Mike Huckabee who said that Romney “looked like the guy who laid you off.” As I recall this helped Huckabee defeat Romney in Iowa four years ago.
Let me put it another way. If Newt & Perry’s criticisms of Romney (and for that matter Huckabee’s) are anathema to Reagan conservatism then Romney should have no problem winning South Carolina in ten days time.
But South Carolina’s current unemployment rate is 9.9%. Granted the unemployment rate fell by 0.6% in November, the state’s largest monthly drop in 35 years. But that’s still far higher than Iowa’s unemployment rate of 5.7% and New Hampshire’s unemployment rate of 5.2%. If Romney can convince South Carolinians he can bring about prosperity then he can win. But Romney won’t win if they believe he will bring them pink slips. Romney has his work cut out for him.
View all comments (19) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Aaron Goldstein
http://spectator.org/blog/2012/01/11/are-romney-capitalism-above-cr
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David | 1.11.12 @ 9:32AM
This is not an intelligent comment. Pick a specific criticism of the assault on Romney for merely the nature of his work at Bain and deal with an argument. The piece at National Review Online is worth responding to, if you have a response.
crazy| 1.11.12 @ 9:36AM
The problem is not that they're doing it, it's how they're doing it. They're marginalizing themselves, innoculating Romney and strengthening the Ronulan movement - not a wise thing for those who see themselves as movement conservatives to do.
Teflon93| 1.11.12 @ 9:44AM
Hating bottom feeders isn't the same thing as hating fish.
Casey Abell| 1.11.12 @ 10:16AM
Truly, Aaron continues to rack up brilliancies. On American Spectator - home of continuous anti-Romney diatribes and where the current lead article is about the "cruel" Romney win in New Hampshire - he asks if Romney is above criticism.
I looked for the "sarcasm" and "sarcasm off" tags but didn't see 'em. Apparently, Aaron thinks, in all seriousness, that Romney suffers from a lack of critical comments.
Aaron, do you ever read your own website?
Aaron Goldstein| 1.11.12 @ 12:06PM
If had read my blog post you would be aware that it was in response to Jeff Lord's criticism of Newt Gingrich & Rick Perry.
Please exercise more diligence when commenting on my articles and blog posts. Thank you.
Casey Abell| 1.11.12 @ 2:40PM
Please exercise more diligence in selecting titles for your blog posts. Asking in nice big letters if Romney is above criticism looks high-larious on American Spectator...where Romney gets little but increasingly bitter criticism. Thanks you.
Donna Lynn| 1.11.12 @ 10:17AM
If a candidate can get businesses profitable again, then there will be fewer pink slips. In fact, there will be more hiring. More jobs. How can anyone not get that?
Teflon93| 1.11.12 @ 10:24AM
That's not the business Bain was in.
Romney harps on the small venture capital plays rather than the large proportion of liquidations for obvious reasons.
When he claims to have created 100,000 jobs, he is counting every job created at the few successful VC plays since Bain owned them, not during his tenure and not counting net jobs.
In other words, he is lying.
http://biggovernment.com/newle.....list-hero/
Dai Alanye | 1.11.12 @ 10:33AM
If Romney were a Hank Reardon type, building an industrial or commercial enterprise from the bottom up, he'd look much better to all of us. Instead he's a money man who built very little himself, and hired or fired simply based on the bottom line, skimming profits for himself and his investors. It's highly ironic that he criticizes China when, in fact, he would have advised any of the companies he acquired to play the Walmart game and buy cheaply from China or any overseas source that might have meant a higher return.
I have no objection to the role he chose -- capital suppliers are necessary to our economy. What I do object to is his exaggeration of the role of Bain Capital, bragging about all the jobs it created when, in fact, it's goal was to create profits by cutting jobs or sending them out of the country, only employing Americans when it suited the bottom line.
Gingrich and Perry are choosing the wrong criticism of Romney, it's true. We might take note of Santorum's response, which is far more honest. But Romney continues to play the hypocrite, blurring the record to suit his guesstimate of what will play well with the Republican base. If he gains the nomination look for an abrupt move to the magical center as he once again remakes himself for greater appeal to independents.
PattyMor| 1.11.12 @ 11:35AM
I agree, the Anti-capitalist rants against Romney is just the wrong way to attack Romney and it doesn't play well with the base. IAnd, in the end it just sounds like sour grapes. ts better to attack Romney for Romneycare, his liberal judges, and his fee raising (sorry they are just taxes by a different name). Why not loop the tape of Barack saying he used Romney's advisers (well really Nancy since Barack doesn't do work), to write up Obamacare? Or loop the tape of Romney calling himself moderate, then clarifying a progressive?
Dan| 1.11.12 @ 11:58AM
Aaron,
Your phrasing didn't go far enough.
It's not whether Romney and Capitalism are above criticism. It's rather Romney's version of Capitalism is somehow immune to moral review.
Cris Worth| 1.11.12 @ 12:12PM
Romney learned from his mistake in '08 the same one Hillary made utilizing only a short term strategy to win the nomination. This time he planned it out with all the i's dotted and the t's crossed. Part of this strategy was to demolish any threats and quickly, Newt the obvious example in Iowa, cleverly so staying in the background pulling the strings. Along with a complicit GOP liberal establishment backed by certain elements of the press it was easy since the opposition except for Gingrich and Perry was a total farce. Perry self-destructed then Romney executed his anti-Newt plan in Iowa brilliantly finishing off his last obstacle to the nomination. Defenders of Romney's Bain have come out of the woodwork since Newt launched a counterstrike but not so when Romney did it to Newt. This should tell us something...the left wing element of the Republican Party, more virulent than ever before including Nelson Rockefeller and George Romney in '64 seeks to demolish the GOP right-wing once and for all and trick tea party members (useful idiots) into supporting candidates like pro-abortion/pro-Roe v. Wade Romney.
PolitiJim | 1.11.12 @ 12:41PM
Not only are the attacks on Gingrich and Perry who attack Bain ill-informed they are LIBERAL attacks. That's right. Attack Gingrich for arguing "from the left" is actually LEFT of de Tocqueville! Read it here: http://www.politijim.com/2012/.....-newt.html
JimH| 1.11.12 @ 1:07PM
Some of Bain’s activities were akin to organ harvesting from ill but not yet dead patients. Knowing of the profit to be gained by selling the parts in the short term, the efforts to save these businesses may not have been all it might be. As I pointed out in an earlier post, even Adam Smith, while extolling the market in general was not above criticizing businessmen in particular.
Tim the Enchanter| 1.11.12 @ 1:44PM
A wise man once said: "The problem with socialism is socialism. The problem with capitalism is capitalists."
Clint| 1.11.12 @ 2:10PM
Uh Oh !
Here It Comes.
Winning Our Future | King of Bain "When Mitt Romney Came To Town"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_evS-T-c35M
The Tea Party Rebellion Heads To South Carolina.
Ken (Old Texican| 1.11.12 @ 2:21PM
Having been CEO of two very large fortune sized companies that were hugundous money makers, I watched time after time the corporate raiders try to swoop in, manipulate our stock for volatility purposes, and make their money off of shorting and short term bounces.
Rick Perry has seen a number of these raiders here in Texas. He prefers the term "vultures". I prefer "raiders" because vultures in the wild come only after dead carcasses. "Raiders" attack robust companies as well.
Trinacria| 1.11.12 @ 2:54PM
Nothing is above criticism; when criticism is off limits, honest intellectual discourse is sacrificed and tyranny is but a few short steps away. Let those who wish to criticize take their best shot; if the target of the criticism can ably respond, his position is thereby strengthened and his ability to clearly articulate and defend his positions has been further demonstrated. If he is unable to withstand the criticism or mount a sufficient defense, then it's highly unlikely that he'll perform well in the crucible of the presidential campaign.
The same applies to capitalism - if the merits of capitalism were so fragile that they couldn't withstand the test of critical inquiry, there'd be little reason to accept (let alone defend) them in the first place.
POST American| 1.16.12 @ 2:09AM
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