Romney: Making Layoffs "An Awful Feeling"
MIAMI -- As the economy takes center stage in the Republican presidential race, Mitt Romney spoke in unusually personal terms about his own business experience during remarks to the Latin Builders Association this morning.
"I've had settings where I've had to lay people off," Romney said. "It's an awful feeling. No one likes laying people off. Someone who thinks you're a bad person if you lay someone off doesn't understand. You feel bad. It's probably the hardest thing I've done in business was asking a person to be let go."
Throughout the campaign, Romney has touted his success in the consulting and venture capital fields in contrast to the "lifelong politicians" in the race. But yesterday, Mike Huckabee alluded to a negative impact of Romney's days at Bain Capital, as the former Arkansas governor continues to brandish his own brand of economic populism.
"And I would also suggest one needs to look very carefully at what exactly the business record is," Huckabee said. "If it's taking companies who are in serious trouble, buying them when they are in pain, selling off their assets, and then making a huge profit off of it, that's not something a lot of Americans can relate to, except those who have lost their jobs because of those kinds of transactions. If that's the turnaround, there are a lot of Americans who would really not like to see their own lives turned around quite like that."
But Romney says he is proud of his record of helping to build companies from scratch, such as Staples, which has gone on to employ tens of thousands of people.
"Now it takes a degree of chutzpah to go to someone and say, 'Give me your money, and I will invest it for you, and I'll give you back 80 percent of the profit I make,'" Romney said. "'And I'm going to keep 20 percent of the profit I make. I'm going to charge you a two percent fee for taking your money, and by the way, if I lose your money, too bad. I don't share in the downside. I only share in the upside.'"
Romney delved deeply into the nuances of the economy and was rewarded with a standing ovation from his audience this morning. Though his speech was devoid of the passion he usually tries to bring out at campaign rallies, the former Massachusetts governor made sure to tie in his overriding message of change.
"If you haven't changed and improved the way you provide your product to the marketplace, your competitor will, and ultimately you'll be gone," Romney said. "Constant improvement, constant change is called for. And that's where I spent my life, where you have, in the private sector."
CBS News' Joy Lin contributed to this report.