Team Obama will exploit Willard Romney in these three areas:
· His 14 years as CEO of Bain Capital;
· His relationship, as a Mormon, to Bain Capital;
· His Mormon faith itself.
If done adroitly, these three will prove to be the bane of Romney’s existence. If done ham-handedly, Obama could lose which would make Romney the bane of our existence.
Romney’s “Mormon Connection” and Bain Capital
Willard Romney is, today, a very wealthy man – with a net worth estimated between $190 to $250 million. And much of that was due to his work at Bain Capital, which is referred to by his detractors as a vulture capital group. Of course, the correct term is venture capital and I think those detractors miss the point with that cheap pun.
So, what is the point? This quote, I believe, leads us there:
QUOTE: During the 14 years Romney headed Bain Capital, the firm’s average annual internal rate of return on realized investments was a staggering 113 percent. At that growth rate, a hypothetical $1,000 investment would grow to $39.6 million before fees. Few, if any, VC firms have ever matched Bain Capital’s performance under Mitt Romney. :UNQUOTE: http://www.american.com/archive/2006/december/mitt-romney/
That’s very impressive, to say the least. And all of this without a whiff of scandal. No one ever accused Willard Romney of breaking the law, bending the rules, or operating a business inappropriately. While it’s true some people are offended that jobs were lost due to the machinations of Bain, it must be remembered: Job creation wasn’t in Romney’s job description. Willard Romney did his job and he, at least to all appearances, did it quite well.
But…how much of that job did he actually do? My question brings up the possible benefit of what I call the Mormon Connection. It’s well known that businessmen often profit due to personal connections. This can sometimes cause problems if that leads to the illegal use of insider information. But that only causes problems if (a) one is caught or (b) the information obtained is legally classified as of the insider variety. In any event, if the information is from a network of one’s co-religionists, exposure becomes less of a problem.
At this point, I direct your attention to a Time Magazine cover story, which appeared in its August 4, 1997 issue. Here’s a photo of the actual cover, which is impressive enough in itself: http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19970804,00.html .
This text appears on that cover:
Mormons, Inc.
The secrets of America’s most prosperous religion
Time Magazine featured a lengthy article focusing on the Mormons’ obsession with material wealth. And that was 15 years ago. It’s a fair bet that Time or some other magazine will be updating that article well before Election Day 2012. Here’s the link to the original article: http://www.lds-mormon.com/time.shtml .
Willard Romney and Robert McNamara
This quote probably says more about Willard Romney, and how he’d behave as our next president, than any other single source:
QUOTE: Plus, Romney was obsessed with numbers. “My favorite thing to do is to bathe in data,” he says now, “do analysis, reach conclusions, and then find a breakthrough. There is nothing as exciting as that ‘aha!’ moment—seeing something that looks insoluble and finding a way to make it work.” :UNQUOTE: http://www.american.com/archive/2006/december/mitt-romney/
As soon as I read that, I thought about another numbers guy who was quite prominent in our history: Robert McNamara, who was featured in a brilliant documentary film called The Fog of War [film trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgA98V1Ubk8 ].
Unfortunately, Mac couldn’t look past the numbers. So much so, his detractors wondered if he even had a soul. That was past, but Romney is present. And we need to know if he has a soul as well. Like Robert McNamara, Willard Romney isn’t afraid of hard work and has a keen, analytical mind. Unfortunately, the solutions we need as a nation can’t be solved by people who “bathe in data.”
And that’s what worries me most about Willard Romney, who may very well have two warring facets to his personality: Willard the Analytical Businessman vs. Willard the Man of Faith. And, yes, it does bother me that he doesn’t defend his faith – not even on his website (scarcely a mention). There was a time in his life when he spent 30 months in France as a Mormon missionary. And he’s held positions of authority in his church. But we have no idea how his faith informs his life.
Or even if it informs his life. I would hate to find out the hard way (say, after he’s elected) that he is capable of compartmentalizing his faith; that he has a soul but doesn’t let it get in the way. I would also hate to find out the hard way that he is nothing more than a Mormon tribalist. That is, one who identifies with the interests of his tribe, while not really caring one whit about its theology except in very general terms.
Of course, a lot of voters wouldn’t care if Romney has a soul if he could answer “yes” to this question: What Romney did for Bain, could he (as POTUS) do for the entire US? That’s a theme which Team Obama should focus on, for the answer to that question must be a resounding “No!” The clientele served by Bain is not the same as the constituency served by the President. While helping one group obtain greater market share at the expense of its competitors is acceptable in the business world, it is totally inappropriate in the political world. There’s simply no comparison.
My one(?) question
One question I would ask Willard Romney: “Do you consider yourself a saint?”
That, of course, is a loaded question since Mormons are officially called “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” So there’s really only one answer he could give, if he chose to answer the question at all. However, I wouldn’t allow him the time to answer, since I’d follow up with another question in the same breath: “If you consider you and yours to be saints, how will you, as President, treat the rest of us?”
No small question, that.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Steven Searle for US President in 2012
Founder of The Independent Contractors’ Party
“Romney doesn’t see himself as a visionary reformer; he sees himself as a tinkerer who’s used to operating under the well-defined, current set of rules. ‘Tinkering,’ I’m afraid, won’t be enough” – Steve.
Contact me at bpa_cinc@yahoo.com
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