Perry campaign lowers volume on Bain attacks

Republican presidential candidate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry

/ Getty Images/Rainier Ehrhardt

The full-throated attacks on Mitt Romney's record at Bain Capital by his rivals for the GOP nomination may be backfiring. Texas Gov. Rick Perry discovered that the hard way on Thursday when a former fundraiser and key supporter said the attacks crossed the line and switched to the Romney camp.

"I think his attacks on Bain are just inappropriate and not part of what the Republican Party should be standing for," said Barry Wynn, a former Republican state chairman in South Carolina and an investment fund executive who had been helping Perry.

"If you throw hatchets, you're going to get some in the back occasionally," Wynn said in an interview with National Journal/CBS News.

Perry's South Carolina advisor Katon Dawson, also a former state party chairman, said, "Rick Perry's not listening to the chattering class, he's talking to the voting class."

Still, Perry's attacks on Romney and Bain Capital disappeared from his stump speech Wednesday afternoon, just before news broke that Wynn had switched his allegiance to Romney. He had been hitting the former Massachusetts governor for participating in "vulture capitalism" for his work at Bain, which he said resulted in people getting tossed out of jobs while Bain and stockholders made big profits. Conservative writers and talk show host Rush Limbaugh have accused Perry and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who has sounded similar themes, of a wrong-headed attack on capitalism.

"It's pretty hard to make the argument that the governor of the state that's created more jobs than any other state in the nation is against the free market," Perry told Fox News today. But he has also backed down from using the term "vulture capitalism" in interviews today, opting for a more mild criticism that private equity firms should try to save struggling companies.

"I think we're making the point that the Republican Party should always be about creating a climate where jobs can be created. There are a lot of private equity firms that come in and they help build jobs, but in those cases where they come in and basically taken the profits out of this companies and sold them for a quick profit, I'm not for that," he said on Fox.

[bubba31138]

It is a characteristic of our economic system that someone with not a shred of altruistic motivation can nevertheless accomplish great good for society. The political Left in particular has always been unable or unwilling to get its mind around this fact. How sad that we now see some GOP candidates willfully contributing to this confusion. Rather than attacking Gov. Romney's private sector experience, they would do well to use this opportunity to explain how capitalism truly does work for the greater good and why we should not seek to destroy it. It's hard to avoid the conclusion that Gingrich and Perry are members of the wrong party.

[voxtrot]

Rick, let me explain free enterprise so you do not babble about things you do not know or understand. I have in my hand one of my most used possessions. It is called an Ipad. In my room, under my bed, there is a first generation Walkman type knock off. Unfortunately the workers that made the knock off cassette player have most likely been layed off and there is a good chance the company is out of business (whoever it was). My guess is that the workers are now working in industries and for companies that have more demand for their products and services (maybe even Apple). I also speculate that the resources used to make the product were sold off to the highest bidder.

You see Rick, businesses come and go based on demand, efficiency, quality of management and a host of other variables. I for one hope that a President of the United States understands this idea. I am further hoping that at some time he or she developed an acumen for assessing value, tightening costs and increasing quality. In some cases maybe even had the skill to assess that the value proposition to the marketplace was not worth the costs (including labor) to uphold the enterprise. I feel there is some of this very analysis needed in Washington.

In the free market world we see such skills as desirable, even though those same skills may lead to a conclusion that is not "desired". At Bain, Mitt Romney was paid to do a job. In a free market system that job was to bring value to shareholders of his employer. He had the skill, drive and understanding of market forces to do very well at that job. As president, he will be asked by the American people to bring value to the proposition of governance. Yes there may be some news stories on govt workers that are let go, and yes they will pull at my heartstrings.

But In the end when the Walkman knock off is tighly pushed under the bed of this great land, and the Ipad is efficiently moving us forward- EVERYBODY WINS.

Rick...Are you listening?

[Parrots10]

You and I may be able to afford and buy several Ipads but do you really believe that everyone should use an Ipad ??? One, it's not free and secondly, some may just be able to afford a Knock-Off walkman or better may not even want an Ipad and is completely satisfied with a Walkman. If the whole country moves in a single direction and with a single thought, tell me how that differs from NAZI Germany ?? Dumb DUmb Repugs !!

[voxtrot]

Rick, let me explain free enterprise so you do not babble about things you do not know or understand. I have in my hand one of my most used possessions. It is called an Ipad. In my room, under my bed, there is a first generation Walkman type knock off. Unfortunately the workers that made the knock off cassette player have most likely been layed off and there is a good chance the company is out of business (whoever it was). My guess is that the workers are now working in industries and for companies that have more demand for their products and services (maybe even Apple). I also speculate that the resources used to make the product were sold off to the highest bidder.

You see Rick, businesses come and go based on demand, efficiency, quality of management and a host of other variables. I for one hope that a President of the United States understands this idea. I am further hoping that at some time he or she developed an acumen for assessing value, tightening costs and increasing quality. In some cases maybe even had the skill to assess that the value proposition to the marketplace was not worth the costs (including labor) to uphold the enterprise. I feel there is some of this very analysis needed in Washington.

In the free market world we see such skills as desirable, even though those same skills may lead to a conclusion that is not "desired". At Bain, Mitt Romney was paid to do a job. In a free market system that job was to bring value to shareholders of his employer. He had the skill, drive and understanding of market forces to do very well at that job. As president, he will be asked by the American people to bring value to the proposition of governance. Yes there may be some news stories on govt workers that are let go, and yes they will pull at my heartstrings.

But In the end when the Walkman knock off is tighly pushed under the bed of this great land, and the Ipad is efficiently moving us forward- EVERYBODY WINS.

Rick...Are you listening?

[greenlantern1]

Was the Howard Hughes loan, to Richard Nixon, good business?
Clifford Spencer

[14FREEK]

OOPS, again. Actually, it is called economic efficiency. You don't want to use resources producing $1 an hour when you can use those resources to make $2 an hour.

[tonyatq]

The GOP will defend taking from the poor to give the rich. Romney made 43 million off the closing of one of the plant while the worker got pink slips. Theses are the same pink slips that Romney said he knows a thing or two about.

[voxtrot]

And they closed the plant where they made my series one palm pilot as well. It takes business acumen and market understanding of market forces to determine that the costs of an enterprise are beyond the value proposition the product or service offers to the marketplace. Kodak is filing for bankruptcy. DO you feel guilty that you went digital???...THAT IS FREE ENTERPRISE!!!

[wmbrainiac_dotmac]

just keep defending your bain background,mr. r
http://www.extracreditstuff.com/Romney/The_Story_of_Bane.html

[msimamaji]

100,000 jobs in 15 years.

That amounts to 6,666.666 a year. That's the number of jobs Bain Capital generated when Romney was in charge. Of course, Romney doesn't explain how many jobs he destroyed or off-shored, how many tax breaks he got - or even how much money he paid in taxes last year.. Also he doesn't explain to us the wages and working conditions that workers in his restructured companies received.

Obama's 2009 stimulus program generated a lot more jobs per year than Bain Capital. So would Obama's Jobs Now program. The only complaint I have with Obama is that both proposals are way too timid when you examine the unemployment rate.

Our infrastructure is falling to pieces and global climate change is going to wreak additional havoc on our infrastructure. We'll need to spend more to maintain our infrastructure, not less. We also need to free ourselves from fossil fuels - or we will face a real horror story.

Neither Bain Capital nor Mitt Romney will produce these jobs. Let's tax the greedy to provide jobs for the needy.

[14FREEK]

"Of course, Romney doesn't explain" TRY ASKING.

[stephand]

Bain Capital did not cot the tax payers $1T. Even If you tax the "greedy" or "rich" 100% (take ALL their money), it does not pay for the current deficit. I don't think you understand the seriousness of how much debt our country has and how bloated our government is...