Bain Attacks Split Party, Expose Obama's Incompetence.

Perhaps Obama should have confirmed that everyone in his own party wanted to attack capitalism, before he launched into these attacks. Its nice to see that there are still some supporters of the free market inside of his party.

What i find funniest about this whole thing with Bain, is that the democrats who are going against the grain with them are highly respected Dems, and Left Wing politicians i Actually like. Booker is a good guy, and so is Ed Rendell, while i dont agree with either on much I have always appreciated the fact that either one will give you the straight goods, and they dont appear to be hyperpartisan most of the time. Although in fairness, while Rendell was DNC chair, i probably would not have liked him much as the chair of either party is basically a position for someone to go on T.V. and trash the other party, and tow the company line, 100% of the time.

If there was anyone out there who was an independent that follows politics all the time, im pretty sure they would also have a very high opinion of both Ed Rendell, and Cory Booker, so if they were to hear what those 2 higher ups within the democrats ranks were saying about Obama's line of attack, I would imagine that they would trust their opinion more than Obama's, so the ad could actually end up doing him damage.







Today at Politico, the left-wing site does a fairly good job of covering the blowback the Obama campaign is facing in its own party over attacks on Bain Capital, a venture capitalist firm once successfully run by Mitt Romney. After the Cory Booker fiasco on "Meet the Press," followed by the Newark Mayor's widely ridiculed "hostage video"(that was selectively-edited by Team Obama) the central issue of the Obama re-election strategy is also splitting the party writ large:

One prominent business official, who asked not to be identified, put it this way: “It’s demonization of capitalism. And that makes a lot of Democrats uncomfortable and Cory Booker’s one of them. … I think that anybody with half a brain knows that the story is far more complicated and, in fact, Bain and private equity generally have made some positive contributions.”

“You know, they’re known as a very good company,” one Democratic operative said of Bain. “[They] help a lot of businesses around the country. Smart Dems don’t want to be anti-business.”

The private-equity community is not a major source of donations for Democrats at this point — but criticism of it has become entangled in perceptions of Wall Street and the business community at large.

Senators such Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, for instance, are among those who still take in hundreds of thousands of dollars from the financial services sector, and would be loath to weigh in.

So will some Democratic governors and other statewide officials, for whom private-equity investments are drivers of state pension funds.]

Democrats are also eating their own. Harold Ford Jr., once considered the rising star of the Democrat party and another critic of Obama's Bain attacks, is now being demeaned by his own for daring to speak out. Also in today's Politico piece:

If senators in target states were denouncing the Bain message, it would be more of a concern, said a senior Democrat who added that Ford, out of office for years and on TV almost exclusively, “is irrelevant.”

Obama has staked his entire re-election on class warfare and envy and the demonization of the wealthy who also create the jobs, contribute to Democrats, and even drive many of the state pensions Democrats hold so dear. This cynical approach that as recently as yesterday Obama doubled down on, is not only dividing Democrats, it's also exposing the President's hypocritical executive incompetence when it comes to managing his own party.

Jennifer Rubin counts the ways in which the Obama campaign has blown the Bain attacks:

First, the original Bain attack ad was weak, easily rebutted because Romney was not at the steel company at the time of the layoffs depicted in the ad. To make matters worse, the day the ad was released Obama was fundraising among his group of investment bankers, resulting in widespread ridicule in the media. And don’t forget Obama’s former car czar also blasted the ad.
Then along comes Booker and his forced recantation. That only highlighted his searing indictment on “MTP.” Because it wasn’t, in the Obama team’s view, sufficiently convincing, it necessitated the edit.

This clown show resembles more a Communist propaganda operation (shall Booker next be airbrushed out of all photos with Obama?) than a supposedly formidable presidential campaign.
The Bain attack now is largely in tatters, savaged by Democrats who don’t want to be the Occupy political party, by the media (which has begun to denigrate the Obama team’s prowess) and of course, by Romney, who has turned the tables comparing his real experience in the private sector with Obama’s crony capitalism.

Moreover, Democrats, including Obama loyalists like his former Car Czar, see the Obama re-election plan of class warfare as an existential threat to the party as a whole. If, as Rubin points out, Democrats are seen as the "occupy" party, the anti-capitalist/free market party, it's not only a wild turn to the left for the party but also the undermining of the contribution base they rely on. There's only so much money you can bleed from Hollywood and unions (both private and public) and with the Supreme Court's Citizen United decision that rightly extends free speech rights to corporations, a major fundraising advantage for Republicans could develop due to well-funded corporations that also see Obama's attacks on them as existential.

Polls show that Romney and Obama are pretty much tied right now with the President possibly enjoying a small lead. The problem for Obama, though, is that he's stuck in the mid-forties, which is a dangerous place for a known incumbent who can't run on a failed record. The only way Obama can change voters' minds is to use the "the devil you know" approach, which means toxifying Romney into something unelectable. Obviously, Bain Capital is vehicle Obama intends to use to do this.

The problem with this approach is that the roll-out has been so flat-footed that it's causing Obama to lose one of his primary strengths: the (false) perception of competence. Before ripping into Bain the Obama camp obviously didn’t have their ducks in a row, not only in making sure fellow Democrats were on board with the talking points but also with respect to the facts. The first Bain attack ad was about something that happened after Romney had already left the company.

The media will carry all kinds of water for Obama, no question about that, but one thing they won't cover up is incompetence from a campaign -- and right now the lean, mean Chicago campaign machine is the gang that can't shoot straight.
These are the crucial months for the President. He must define his opponent as unelectable now. We have a long way to go, but as of now the Bain gameplan is only aiding Romney in defining Obama as what he is: anti-free market, a bully , hypocritical, incompetent, and arrogant.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Govern...Attacks-Split-Party-Expose-Obama-Incompetence

 

I knew this for sure when David Axelrod was eviscerated by Chris Wallace on Fox a few weekends ago.

 

There's more than one type of capitalism, so Obama is not attacking "Capitalism". This is a useful national discussion, and that the dems might be split over it... so what? May hurt Obama's chances for reelection, may not, but it does confirm, imho, the clear presence of One Percenters in government and the dem party. Which also helps confirm that our entire government is a government: of the One Percenters, by the One Percenters, for the One Percenters.

 

Indeed, there is free market capitalism, and then there is the type where the government gets into the business of choosing winners and losers......

Which one is currently failing? Which one does Obama support?

 

What do you mean by failing? Corporate profits are at all time highs. That's one measure. Capital is not only cheap, it's downright desperate for a place to go--if you have a sound business plan, you can get your credit. That's another measure. The taxpayer has been asked to bail out TBTF enterprises, so that's been a massive transfer of wealth from labor to capital, a failure for labor, but a success for the bailed out. You be the judge!

 

Which is precisely what i mean by "failing," the bailouts, and subsidies have us and every other country on the verge of bankruptcy...

Why do you think businesses are remaining in Cash? Cash is mobile, if i have cash i can move it into any asset class i think will hold up if my country goes bankrupt. No shrewd business person is going to invest heavily into brick and mortar businesses right now, when every country in the world is currently teetering on the verge of bankruptcy.... This is a direct result of government getting too big, and getting in the business of choosing winners and losers....

The fact of the matter is the illusion of the free market is long gone for any intelligent business person. They know goddamn well that the government will bail them out no matter what they do, and then we wonder why they take excessive risks..... Look at Jamie Dimon, you really think he would have been so goddamn stupid right after that collapse if he didnt know that he had no risk of even losing his job should things go wrong? Thats not a free market my friend.

 

your jamie dimon comment is spot on.
the company is too big to fail.
the fed is too big to fail.
and even corizine and the crooked crew from the the last round of failures is far to connected to go to jail.

Why not make 100 billion dollar bets. If you are right you get super rich bonuses, if you are wrong you get to stay rich.

 

+1 on corzine, If there was any doubt left in these guys eyes that they can quite literally get away with murder, that is now gone with Corzine, it is now a free for all, and not only do they not have to worry about risk anymore, they dont even have to worry about criminal activity....

And the worst part is that Corzine is getting off because the democrats are in power, but even if Romney wins, there will be no fucking charges, Romney isnt going to charge one of his own either, so Corzine is in the clear.....

The smartest thing Obama could do for his re-election bid would be to charge a bunch of people at Lehman, and charge Corzine right before the election, so that there is atleast an illusion that these guys are not above the law..... I bet if he made a couple of these guys heads roll right before the election, it would give him 5 points in the polls....

 

Please back up the statement "if you have a sound business plan, you can get your credit." I would settle for any backup showing that significant credit is widely available to anyone but the 1% (which I include to be anyone with access to the PDW or medium to large corporations).

 

“Progressives” are not concerned with Progress, but are Socialists who accept taking steps to arrive at Communism.