I think it was very nice of Newt (via his “super PAC”) to do this:
“This is a story of greed, of playing the system for a quick buck, a group of corporate raiders led by Mitt Romney more ruthless than Wall Street. For tens of thousands of Americans, the suffering began when Mitt Romney came to town.”
— Voice-over from “King of Bain” video promoted by a pro-Newt Gingrich super PAC, “Winning Our Future.”
Newt Gingrich, meet Michael Moore!
The 29-minute video “King of Bain” is such an over-the-top assault on former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney that it is hard to know where to begin. It uses evocative footage from distraught middle-class Americans who allege that Romney’s deal-making is responsible for their woes. It mixes images of closed factories and shuttered shops with video clips of Romney making him look foolish, vain or greedy. And it has a sneering voice-over that seeks to push every anti-Wall Street button possible.
The video has been so thoroughly discredited that Newt is now trying to disown it.
But the hard work that went into it remains online forever, and again, it was very helpful of Newt.
Helpful to Obama!
Because, while the Democrats could have been depended upon to produce their own version of such a smear, now they don’t have to, as the work has been done for them. Moreover, it is much more credible, because the Democrats can now sit back and say something along these lines.
“But don’t take our word for it. Just watch for yourself and see what Mitt Romney’s fellow conservatives said about him!”
Nice work!
Comments
13 responses to “Giving credit where credit is due”
I begrudgingly apply niceties upon Newt as well. I must say though the whole thing has made me respect Ron Paul even more, at least since I heard that he was defending Romney’s capitalistic actions even as Newt and Perry were attacking them. Most candidates jump on anything negative about a candidate as an excuse to attack them; Paul actually fired back at such attacks because they required attacking conservative principles.
This is one good thing Newt has done, if he did have a direct hand in the production of the video. I have absolutely no sympathy for the bottom feeding capitalism of George Soros, James Goldsmith, or Mitt Romney. They’re scum.
You can gloss over what they do, calling it creative destruction or Darwinian capitalism, if you want. But they take healthy companies with undervalued assets, leverage them to the max, loading them down with debt, and then walk away before the bill comes due. Or they simply sell off the assets individually because the parts are worth more than the whole, and then walk away.
They leave behind empty factories, rusted equipment, and destitute employees. It’s always the short term bottom line with them, never the long range goal of creative business.
The images of Romney bulldozing a million dollar mansion in California to build a bigger, grander chateau, while the employees of a little paper products company in Indiana are pushed into foreclosure, is all anyone needs to know what kind of person he is. How many million did he make at their expense? Only a quarter of a billion. Greedy, fucking bastard!
If this is what capitalism has come down to, then I guess I’m a socialist.
Another example of this type of capitalism is going on throughout the paper producing sector in this country. Many of the paper producers are also integrated companies that own vast timberlands which have been the source of ground wood pulp which is the raw product used in paper.
They are systematically being turned into Real Estate Investment Trusts. The mills and boxboard plants are slowing being shut, while the timber is logged. With no market in this country either for pulp, or lumber, the raw logs are piled 50 feet high waiting to be shipped to Asia. The forests are being stripped for short term gains. After clear cutting the land will again be sold by the trusts as they recoup the measly initial investment. In the meantime, thousands upon thousands of good paying jobs are lost forever.
Romney’s top campaign contributors, starting with Goldman-Sachs:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/presenting-mitt-romneys-top-campaign-contributors
Frank, the point is not to bash greedy capitalist pigs, but to beat Obama. You think I like corporate downsizing, and MBAs ruining perfectly good companies? I hate the SOBs. But the greedy capitalists pale in comparison with socialist busybodies, environmentalists, safety Nazis, disabled rights activists, public policy/public health bureaucrats who simply want to do everything they can to destroy business and the American dream.
This is not a question of having sympathy with greedy pigs, but with the freedom to be a greedy pig. Taking away the right to be scum is worse than having the scum exercise it.
I am not endorsing Romney, and I am getting a bit tired of this debate.
And Frank, keep in mind that Goldman Sachs gave over $1 million to Obama in 2008. His biggest single contributor. I can’t stand the company, but perhaps they are trying to atone. Probably also frightened by the criticism they’ve been getting.
Would you rather they continue to fund Obama?
[…] can’t believe we are having to debate such obvious […]
Eric, it’s called frustration. No Republican candidate is worth much of damn this go-around. The ire is vented at the prospect of being forced to vote for one of them, as again the lesser of two increasing evils – especially if it’s either Romney or Gingrich. I didn’t know anything about Romney’s business until the video. Then I made it a point to investigate. It may be inaccurate and misleading, but it makes the right conclusion.
Point taken about Obama. He and the left are much worse, no question about that. I guess we’ll just have to suck it up, eh?
Disgusting prospect.
Romney is not a capitalist in any proper sense of that word. The destruction of industries, or corporations, for short term profit is also the destruction of accumulated knowledge.
As someone who built a small business from scratch, who worked two full time jobs for almost a year to acquire the initial capital, who studied the industry as a scientist studies chemistry, who worked and leaned craftsmanship not written but handed down from one generation to the next, I know exactly what people like Romney do. And the word that Perry used, vultures, is the right one.
Here is a great piece about corporations by Gonzalo Lira. It is one of the most original explanations of capitalism and corporations ever written:
http://gonzalolira.blogspot.com/2010/07/why-corporations-matter-part-i.html
Romney did not destroy any company. These were dying companies. What Romney and others did was salvage value from the collapse.
Lunatics like Gonzalo Lira are themselves responsible for places like the PIIGS were large scale economic collapse involving whole economies is possible. If it happens, the socialist lunatics will blame capitalists for their own crimes.
The piece by Lira is priceless original thinking. What else he may advocate is beside the point. But I know that a year and half ago he predicted accurately what is now going on in the Eurozone, specifically the banking problems centered around Italy and Spain. Just how foresight is a crime, or how a modern day Cassandra caused any of it, Mr. Sykes would have to explain.
As to venture capital companies like Bain or investment banks like Goldman swooping in to rescue value from failing companies, isn’t that just another way of saying they are expert at picking the bones? Bain went far beyond that, however, by purposely loading obscene amounts of debt on companies with good balance sheets and valuable assets, knowing that they couldn’t service it without a miracle, and then pulling out hundreds of millions before the ship went down. If that isn’t criminal, it should be.
Romney just plain lacks integrity. You don’t know what his principles are because he shifts. He will say anything to get power. Here is a funny youtube that should play well with social conservatives. It’s called Liberals for Romney.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ensEjnGMRTA
And Frank, keep in mind that Goldman Sachs gave over $1 million to Obama in 2008. His biggest single contributor.
That is what worries me. No matter who wins the same people own the government.
Well, regardless of who owns the government, I would still like to see Obama out.
He has been a disaster.