Obama team tries to quell Cory Booker controversy

Cory Booker, Mayor of Newark

/ Bennett Raglin/Getty Images for Macy's

Updated at 2:50 p.m. ET

(CBS News) Two days after Newark Mayor Cory Booker, a surrogate for President Obama's re-election team, criticized the campaign's anti-Bain attacks against Mitt Romney, the Obama campaign is still on defense over the issue.

On Sunday, Booker referred to the negative ads -- as well as negative campaigning from conservatives -- as "nauseating."

After Booker released a follow-up, four-minute YouTube video to explain his point of view -- and remark that it's reasonable for the Obama team to scrutinize Romney's record at the private equity firm -- Republicans suggested that Booker was pressured to do so by the campaign. "Obama clamping down on @corybooker shows that democrats are no longer allowed to defend free market," Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus tweeted.

On MSNBC Monday, Booker said, "I certainly did talk with campaign officials, but they didn't force me to do anything." The Obama campaign, however, says Booker spoke with an official from the Democratic National Committee, not a member of the re-election campaign.

"As Mayor Booker has said, the campaign did not reach out and ask him to record a video," Obama campaign spokesperson Ben LaBolt said in a statement. "Campaign officials also had not reached out directly to Mayor Booker yesterday, but he spoke with a DNC official who also did not ask him to record a video. He reaffirmed, as he has stated publicly, that he believed that a discussion of Mitt Romney's private sector record is necessary given that he has made it the central premise of his candidacy but has falsely claimed that his goal was job creation, not profit maximization for himself and his partners."

Republicans, meanwhile, continue to zero in on Booker's original remarks, charging that Mr. Obama is attacking "free enterprise."

Asked to address that charge, LaBolt told reporters Monday, "We're not questioning the purpose of the private equity business as a whole, or Romney's capacity to run a business as he saw fit. We're questioning what the values and lessons are from that experience and whether the economic philosophy that he demonstrated while he was a corporate buyout specialist is one that Americans would like to see in the Oval Office."

Booker, for his part, told MSNBC Monday that Republicans were manipulating his words. "I'm very upset that I'm being used by the GOP this way," he said.

One of Romney's own surrogates, former New Hampshire Gov. John H. Sununu, told reporters Tuesday that Romney's record at Bain is "fair game" for the Obama camp. However, he added that the Obama campaign has been "cherry-picking" facts about the Bain record.

"So if he is going to, as he said the other day, if the campaign is going to be his discussions about Bain and his cherry-picking of the investments Bain made that didn't work out, then the American public will join Booker... in being embarrassed, nauseated and disappointed at this presidency," Sununu said.

Other politicians, meanwhile, continue to weigh in. Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., charged that Romney was involved in "raping companies" with Bain, while former Pensylvania Governor Ed Rendell, a Democrat, said the Obama ads are "disappointing" but that "Bain is fair game."

[stormerF69]

So where would we be with out investment capital? Obama/Biden keep slaming Romney for making money for Bain investors,but with out investors what business could exist? Booker was right on Meet The Press,and with Millions pouring into New Jersey for investments which start businesses and create jobs.

[wfw3536]

Booker was right when he said it made him sick that the Obama campaign is against capitalism and the fact that good companies make money for their stockholders, who by the way are regular folks some who are retired with a pension, with others saving for retirement/etc. It is sad when this makes 3 prominent democrats in the last few days who support companies like Bain Capital and are sick of Obamas assult against capitalism in our country.

[BlameRepublicanz]

No one cares about this...the fact still remains that Romney will NEVER be President...ever.

[daniele7ster]

Fighting over the articulate African-American the GOP Super PAC so desperately wanted ...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/post/as-expected-the-defeat-of-barack-hussein-obama

[CBSCNETPaul]

Please pardon me for now giving the long version of the "private equity" issue. I hope it allows you to look at this from an economics perspective -- a long-term, socio-economic policy perspective. (I have a B.A. in Econ from UCLA, so I think in those terms.) "Private equity" is simply "organized capital" -- as opposed to "organized labor." Bain (and similar investment groups) seeks out companies whose accumulated value (equity) is worth more than what Bain can acquire the company for. That's all; that's the simple version; buy low, sell high. Sometimes, a management restructuring is required to increase the value of the acquired company (b/c current management doesn't understand the potential value of what they have); sometimes a labor restructuring is required (b/c, for example, the work can be done more cheaply in China); sometimes neither management nor labor restructuring will do the trick, but the actual value of the real estate, machines, patents and other assets of the acquired company can be sold off at a profit; sometimes -- and, Bain has done this -- the company's assets can be borrowed against, earning large fees (in the millions) for Bain, plus generating cash (which Bain pocketed), and then the whole company goes bankrupt and closes down --with the US taxpayer stepping in to cover the retirement payments for the workers. You and I are going to be voting to decide which of these men will lead this nation for the next four years. Please take some time to consider whether leading a private equity firm -- whose first and only goal is to determine how to maximize profits to the owners of that firm, without regard to the effects on all the other people impacted -- is the kind of experience needed by a US President, whose ultimate duty is to consider the well-being of *every* member of our society. Romney asserts that it is. I say it is not. Moreover, setting aside all of those details, please remember that while a CEO must be dictatorial to be successful -- hiring and firing to achieve good results for the company -- an elected President must be able to work with people who disagree with his vision, and he can't fire them for it.

[RealWorldNow]

So where does that leave us with the community organizer? There's not leadership coming from there only a plan to spend and divide...

[CBSCNETPaul]

@RealWorldNow: I see the conclusion you've drawn, but no analysis. Here's mine: What is the goal of a community organizer? He's got to try to convince people in power to consider the needs of the folks without power. On its face, that's precisely the kind of experience that would be helpful to folks like you and me. OTOH, the problem -- and, we've seen this with Obama so far -- he tends to give more deference than is necessary (now) to those folks with the power. IOW, he's not using his "bully pulpit" to demand more from those who have it, so that those who need it -- and don't have fair or reasonable access to it -- can get it. That benefits the entire society. By the way, the reason we have come to our current financial situation is that "trickle down" does not work; money "trickles" up, not down. Tax cuts on the wealthy kill jobs rather than create them. Tax increases create jobs b/c a company -- if faced with a huge tax bill on net profit -- is inclined to hire an additional worker rather than pay the tax.

[Miliman]

At least Romney will want to whats best for the country not his ego. As for Rev Racist Wright- its off limits because its a negative against the messiah in chief. Same as Booker was slapped down over this EVENTHOUGH he said this about Bain he also said Wright conversations were wrong. All he was trying to get to was lets talk about the issues not this nonsense. If you are white and you criticize him, you are a racist, if you are black and you criticize him you are a sell out or an uncle tom- and on and on. But why are all his records under lock and key from college onward as well???????

[BlameRepublicanz]

riiiight romney is running for President because of the country, not because he wants to be President, right?

[DawnGurl]

Democrats will now have to call Booker an Uncle Tom. it's in the playbook. But back on earth, Mr Booker is correct on all accounts. Romney sucks, but Obama sucks much worse.

[Shibbol]

This is a tempest in a teapot. Booker just slightly misspoke. He walked back what he said almost immediately, not because the White House gave him hell, but because he has always been basically very pro-Obama. Attempts by the GOP to use him against Obama are desperation personified. That dog will not hunt.

[thebob-bob]

Considering that all of Romney's Republican primary opponents called him a liar, thief, brigand, liberal and cultist, what Booker said was nothing. Remember Newt Gingrich and his "10 things about Mitt"?

[umbria1]

This whole Obama strategy has been so nonsensical at so many levels that it is hardly a surprise, more and more democrats are abandoning it. Now Ed Rendell is critical of it.

E.g. look at the distinction being drawn by some Obama supporters between working to employ people versus working to make profit for investors. Nothing reveals the mediocrity of personalities that pervade the TV more than the fact that no one has seen it fit to point out: NO business person's/CEO's objective is to employ other people per se. They ALL want the business to make lots of money. They want to maximize profit. It is understood, as long as that happens, more people will be employed. By the same token, no worker/employee is Mother Teresa. Each works to maximize profit for HIMSELF. To be critical of this is to be critical of all businesses. Utter nonsense.

[Shibbol]

Welcome back to earth. What planet have you been exploring. Here on earth, President Obama is encouraging voters to examine all sides of the economic realities, including Mitt Romney's experience in venture capitalism and how it relates or does not relate to how a President governs the country. Maybe you could investigate that subject too after you unpack your space capsule.

[RealWorldNow]

until they write a check goog... it's all talk and talk is cheap.