Of course we saw it coming way back in October as did all of the political junkies. We knew that the presidential campaign would eventually put Mitt Romney and private equity under the magnifying glass making them a central target of the “class warriors.” It was all teed up for President Obama for when he was to go head-to-head with Romney if he were to win the nomination. We figured we had at least another two or three months to brace ourselves before the excrement hit the oscillator. We were wrong. No one could have expected that the first assault would come from within Romney’s own Republican Party, the party of free enterprise and protector of capitalism.
Of course, one comes to expect just about anything to come out of the mouth of Newt Gingrich, and with his back against the wall after the Iowa caucuses, he lunged with the only weapon he had left in the arsenal. Rick Perry piled on, but much of the rest of the Republican Party has been looking on in horror as Obama’s strongest case against Romney has been given validity and a level of stature that he could never have anticipated. Happy Birthday, Mr. President.
Source: articles.businessinsider.com
A “film” produced by a Gingrich Super Pac, has graphically portrayed Romney and the private equity industry in all of their sadistic and greedy glory – as killers of companies and money-sucking vultures. In the few attempts he has made to counter the counter-claims, Romney has fallen short, leaving the door open for more attacks and scrutiny.
And, the timing couldn’t have been worse for a report out this week on the $400 million payday for the three founders of Carlyle Group. That will make it kind of difficult for Romney when he faces the cameras to defend the private equity industry as the engine of business growth and renewal. His refusal to reveal his own tax returns is bound to harden the case being made that Romney and the rest of the PE crowd just don’t mesh with the 99%, a case that Obama will make right up until the day of the election. Never mind that Obama own executive staff has been included three very successful private equity executives.
Romney now has a golden opportunity to set his own record straight, and also educated the public on just what private equity does for business. He should stop with the “job creation” bit because, although PE investment does create more jobs than it destroys, that is not its purpose. It may not seem like the most politically correct thing to do, he needs to tell like it really is: Private equity exists to generate big returns for investors. That’s it. But, he should overstate the benefits of successful private equity investment: more capital created to invest in more companies that do, in fact create jobs. And, when they’re not mired in the political subterfuge, Americans do understand the essence of free-enterprise and the reality of survival of the fittest in a strong economy. Let’s hope he takes his case early and often to the public now, so that Obama is left holding an empty bag.
