President Barack Obama's re-election campaign is (fortunately) ignoring Newark Mayor Cory Booker's "nauseating" remark and staying on the offense on Mitt Romney's record as a job-destroying corporate raider at Bain Capital.
In a video being released today, the Obama campaign zeroes in on a Marion, Indiana, company, American Pad & Paper, also known as Ampad.
The ad says Romney and his partners multiplied their investment in the office products plant by 20 times while the company went onto lose some 1,500 jobs and went bankrupt by 2000.
Former Ampad worker Randy Johnson calls Romney's performance "just the opposite of Robin Hood."
Yesterday on NBC's Meet The Press, Booker, an Obama surrogate, surprised a lot of people by criticizing last week's attack ad on Romney's Bain record at GST Steel, calling it "nauseating."
MSNBC's Alex Wagner and the NOW panel discuss Newark Mayor Cory Booker's candid comments about the Obama campaign's attack on Romney's Bain record.
Sorry Mayor Booker, but Bain did to American workers is what we find to be really nauseating!
Watch the video:
Ed will have a lot to say about Booker's remarks tonight on The Ed Show at 8pET on MSNBC with former Ampad worker Randy Johnson!
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i hope mitt-flop is prepared to hear the truth about what bain capital really did, as if he doesn't already know!
Mitt is going to read gws new book when it comes out and adopt it for his economy. He says it isn't too long, and he can read crayon.
After gw, ruins the economy in this company he really thinks some one would read this book and put it on their reference shelf? ROTFFL
Mitt Romney knows exactly what Bain Capital did, as well as the part he played in it. The salient point in this election is that the USA is not a company. Even if Romney had been a genuine businessman instead of a vulture capitalist, running a country is a whole different ballgame. Romney has ZERO knowledge of foreign policy and would take us back to the 1950's. He will bloat the already bloated defence budget and make GWB's foreign policy blunders look like child's play.
Just like Obama said this afternoon, the president has to care about everyone's jobs, he wants to and is obligated to see that the working class, the poor and the middle class are doing as well as possible.
By now, people should have figured out that further lowering taxes on the almighty "Job Creators", and deregulating the banks and Wall Street just may NOT be the country's path to prosperity.
Of course Romney only cares about the 1%, doesn't he. Most of us just aren't rich enough to matter.
Wrong young, Suzzette, the deficts are mainly Obamas. Obama does not care about spending in case you haven't figured it out yet.
And look at how many dealerships were closed when the Obama administration took over GM. The main bundler for Obama is working for Bain capital right now. When will you young people open your eyes ?
Liberalism is not about helping anyone, it is about the acquisition of power through creating a permanent underclass. You young Takers are buying lies!
and my question is who is booker other than a governor. he's not running for pres and hes' not really campaining. but then this mornig he basically took back what he said. mutt and his cronies still lie and cheat
Sorry Billie he is the Democrat mayor of Newark NJ. And he is not alone as a Democrat in condemning the attacks on Bain Capital. One of Obama's ex economic advisors has also condemned the administrations attacks on Romney and Bain. But politics is a dirty business and all is fair game, So the Pres better be prepared for equal treatment from the Republicans on his weak economic record and huge deficits.
And he best not count on getting Bin Laden as his ace in the hole. Just ask the first Bush who defeated Saddam and Liberated Kuwait. And when the economy declined Clinton beat him handily. Obama better hope for less than 7 % unemployment and the country not paying attention to his $5 trillion deficits. And he might not want to hype the health care legislation since most insurance has gone up since it was enacted. In my case it went up 10 freakin percent.
the deficits mostly belong to the w. bush adminstration, and the repubs who loved voting for every bill that bush wanted.
the deficits under this president are because President Obama was left holding the bag for everything bush put on the credit card.
when bush left office, his deficits, and the responsibility of paying for his debt, didn't just disappear.
They all blow sweet nothings in your ear while taking your money and your valubales lol
Suzette
Once again I have to explain to you how the Federal Budget process works. The 4 budgets that Obama has presided over have resulted in deficits of over $5 trillion. Check the www.fms.treas.gov for the September Monthly Treasury Statement's final deficit figures and the CBOs website for the latest estimate on the 2012 deficit. These are Obama's deficits, not Bush. I know its difficult for you to accept facts and easier to just blame Bush, but dear facts are facts.
A FED - that means the other 10 Trillion was on Bush's watch. Again Bush's deficit not President Obama's... You again forget to add in those 2 illegal wars (with no way to pay for them) Bush started along with tax cuts during a recession which anyone with 2 brain cells would know is a stupid thing to do. Get real dude!
Dude, if you knew one thing about the Federal budget process you would go to the Treasury website and see that during Bush's 8 years he accumulated $4 trillion in deficits and you would also see that the "unfunded" wars were and continue to be included in the DOD's budget. The other $6+ trillion dollars in accumulated debt was for the 43 Presidents prior to Bush and Obama. But your ignorance of the Federal Budget process is understandable. Go to the web site and do a little hard research. I've given you the education that you now need to go forward and debate, itelligently the real facts on the deficits, dude.
forget booker,he is acting like a flipflopper himself .just like mutt romney.who i would not trust my life in his hands
like the mutt romney reference great the best one since etch a sketch lol
I watched Meet the Press and saw Cory Booker stabbed Obama and the middle class in the back. He must be a blue dog trader. Romney's history with Bain shows what and who Romney is, despite how meny sides of the issues he pretends to stand on. Cory Booker did the middle class voters a disservice with his remarks on Meet the Press. Frankly he, Cory Booker, should be voted out of office.
Booker completely misses the point of Obama's campaign. I am an MBA graduate and Obama is not knocking venture capitalism at all! He's referring to the callous way that Bain Capital does business. It's one thing to close down a business due to low profitability. It's a whole other thing to close it down to make a profit with no regard at all for the employees. Business investment does require tough decisions sometimes and someone will always be hurt from those decisions. But how people are treated makes all the difference in the world. I once had to fire someone and it was not an ugly experience because I genuinely cared about the person. Bain capital does not seem to treat employees with basic human decency; all they cared about was the profits! That's what makes people so angry because that's what hurts most of all. Obama is exposing an underlying cold hearted attitude to dealing with middle class and poor people.
Leave it to the liberals to drag out some old hacks that lost their jobs over 20 years ago.
But then again obama's record is not what you would call a "success" story by any stretch of the imagination..
I am very disappointed in Corey Booker. Bain definitely is a relevant part of the discussion.
How on earth can a compnay that makes money, grows companies, be part of the discussion??
You liberals hate those types of companies.
Furthermore, you can't run out and tell us all just how good the president is doing now can you.
Over 8% uneployment for the past 3 years
Over 40 million people on food stamps
Over 12 million people out of work.
Way to keep American out of work obama!!!!
"Grows companies?" How did Bain Capital grow SCM Office Products?
Renee, he has no answer, his name says it all.....stupidita
Stupidita is still spamming with that same old tired stuff........We are still waiting for her to post something of value and give us some sources to back it up.
stupid,
more people were on food stamps under W. bush. more jobs have been created under President Obama's leadership thus far in a recessison, than were created under bush for 8 years.
dems love companies that create jobs-we don't like the companies like bain capital, vulture capitalism companies.
the repubs have said "no" to every jobs bill the President has put forth. as per their promise to each other, their pledge to each other to say "no" to every economic bill Obama puts forth.
way to keep americans out of work, repubs/baggers!!!!
Stupida, Wake up to the most important fact I can give you: You are one of the people Romney and the GOP do not consider worth mentioning, let alone caring about.
You'd better put your money on the black guy. He does care about you. I'm betting you are young, female and possibly Hispanic. If I'm right, wake up. You've got it all wrong.
Obama didn't come to the white house to make friends he came to do a job and there for both sides of the ailes decided what better way to make the president look like a fool than not pass any jobs or infrastructure bill he draws up
brsfn71, Yeah, the amazing thing is that he's created 4 million jobs, the Dow is at record highs, and the unemployment rate is dropping.
And let's not forget the price of gas is dropping, since the GOP blamed him for its rise! Our gas here in PA has dropped 20 cents.
more people were on food stamps under W. bush. more jobs have been created under President Obama's leadership thus far in a recessison, than were created under bush for 8 years.
Try going to bls.gov for the unempoymnet numbers. fns.usda.gov for the food stamps numbers.
over 5 million less people working today than when obama took office.
Wake up already
stupid,
go to the U.S. dept. of agriculture's food and nutrition service for month by month going back to 2001.
they show that under w. bush the number of people on food stamps rose by 14.7 million. nothing before comes close to that.
and under President Obama, the increase has been 14.2 million. foods stamps have grown by 444,574 FEWER people under President Obama's time in office.
gingrich and other repubs have used this LIE as a way to support his view that the united states is becoming an entitlement society.
you also imply that President Obama STARTED the trend of the increase in food stamps. in the 12 months BEFORE Obama was sworn in, 4.4 MILLION WERE ADDED TO THE FOOD STAMP ROLLS, triple 1.4 million added in 2007.
can't you get anything right?
YOU wake up.
Bain Capital is a relevant topic regardless of what the right winged trolls say on this blog. Romney represents the top one percent. The black lady with two children who worked at this SCM, Marion, Indiana plant did not deserve to be thrown out in the street. This is how miserable Mitt Romney is about treating American workers. Bain Capital has bought out good companies and then drove them into bankruptcy numerous times all so Bain could make a fast dollar. This sort of method is not how you build up an economy. Its how you tear down a nation.
This whole scenario reminds me of a book I read years ago called "America: What Went Wrong" written by two journalists from Philadelphia named Donald L. Bartlett and David B. Steele published in 1992. These journalists describe how companies outsource jobs for cheap labor, use the bankruptcy system to avoid paying taxes, and strip the workers of pensions and benefits. Mitt Romney is a vulture capitalist. When you treat the black woman with two kids like she is nothing, it certainly shows serious moral and character failings on Mitt Romney's part. It shows that Bain Capital is run by stupid corporate swine who don't care about America or the workers in America. Mitt Romney ought to be ashamed of himself and give up is Cayman Islands or Swiss Bank accounts to business people who want to build jobs and businesses up in America rather than screw workers out of their jobs.
As I call it, The Romney Bain Capital Massacre's!
Stupidita
Go look at the video and imagine if you were that black woman with two kids to take care then some corporate Wall Street vulture/swindler came and closed down the company. If you do not have any more empathy for working class Americans than what your posts indicate maybe it would be a good deal for you to imagine what it would be like to get laid off of your job, losing your home, car, and health insurance. So its a good deal when the top one percent strips middle class workers of their jobs, benefits, and pensions while simultaneously the top one percent uses the bankruptcy code to avoid taxes and put the profits in offshore bank accounts to avoid taxes. Boy what a helluva patriot you are if this is what you believe is justice working people. You are one sick, immoral, and disgrace of a human being. Just think how I feel, I provided you with a country and the freedom of speech while serving in the military for 20 years so you could spit out your vile, selfish, moronic, and ignorant right winged drivel. We need businesses that do business here in America rather than ones that outsource jobs and hide the profits in offshore tax shelters in Bermuda or the Cayman Islands. If you hate American workers so much why not just call yourself "Benedict Arnold" Romney and go move to the Cayman Islands so you can get a tax write off.
Not only does Mitt have money in the Caymans, He also has money in Bermuda, Australia, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Germany and Ireland. He loves to spread his money around...just not in the U.S. A greedy, selfish empty suit.
Romney would drive this country into the ground so fast, we wouldn't know what hit us. His ideas and policies scare me half to death. I can't bear to think of the damage the Ryan budget would do to America.
Plus he's a lying sociopath and belongs to a weird religion that says he'll rule his own planet as a god when he dies. Plus he has NO knowledge of foreign policy whatsoever. That is the scariest: Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran! Russia is our #1 enemy? Really???? What century is this, Mitt? Help me out, here. You are running for our commander-in-chief.
There may be a wee problem in the middle East, Mitt.
WOW!!!!!! You people just make things up as you go...
Just how did Apple, microsoft, home depot, walmart, amazon, etc start???
IT's called Venture Capital & Private Equity..
Mitt Romney reminds me of Gordon Gekko. This country cannot afford to elect a corporate raider as it's chief executive. None of us can afford to sit the next one out!
Pam~ Did you ever notice that shortly after that movie came out, Wall Street really took it to heart? "Greed is good" became their mantra. And it's only gotten worse over the years.
This Cory Booker controversy is laughably meaningless. He didn't say anything of particular importance so it's interesting to watch people say he betrayed the president.
On Bain Romney always tries to answer criticism on that by trying to veil himself as the avatar of all business and commerce. Well he isn't of course but that is how how he tries to fend off that attack because he knows the apple pie entrepeneurship and innovation he claims wasn't there. There would be no problem with Bain, no one really thinks private equity should be illegal despite what mindless left wing idiots are told to say or what right wing drones are instructed to think. This isn't about the legality of private equity this is about the false narrative Romney has tried to create to try and pretend job creation was important at Bain and that the very rich drive the economy.
I agree it is meaningless- but what is not meaningless at least to me- is the cries that Mayor Booker should be put on the ice flow or be subject to public execution for expressing his views- apparently at least in the view of some- you can express views only so long as they are consistent with views of President Obama- certainly not a tolerant view-
Yesterday, Newark, New Jersey Mayor Cory Booker (D) attacked the Obama campaign for making an issue of Mitt Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital during an appearance on Meet the Press. While the progressive leader later backed off the criticisms, Republicans have been quick to highlight his comments as an attack against the idea that scrutiny of Mitt Romney’s record as a businessman is fair game.
A ThinkProgress examination of New Jersey campaign finance records for Booker’s first run for Mayor — back in 2002 — suggests a possible reason for his unease with attacks on Bain Capital and venture capital. They were among his earliest and most generous backers.
Contributions to his 2002 campaign from venture capitalists, investors, and big Wall Street bankers brought him more than $115,000 for his 2002 campaign. Among those contributing to his campaign were John Connaughton ($2,000), Steve Pagliuca ($2,200), Jonathan Lavine ($1,000) — all of Bain Capital. While the forms are not totally clear, it appears the campaign raised less than $800,000 total, making this a significant percentage.
He and his slate also jointly raised funds for the “Booker Team for Newark” joint committee. They received more than $450,000 for the 2002 campaign from the sector — including a pair of $15,400 contributions from Bain Capital Managing Directors Joshua Bekenstein and Mark Nunnelly. It appears that for the initial campaign and runoff, the slate raised less than $4 million — again making this a sizable chunk.
With every story i here told from the people who went through the devastation by Romney and Bain Capitol it makes my conviction even stronger that he will destroy the middle class in this nation. The man has a heart of stone and no regrets for what he did. Would he do it again ?Y ou have to be living on Mars if you think he won"t but from the Oval office and the Re Pubs and Tea party and him will level whats left of this country. He will with the pen as his sword take it all away. And have no remorse. We the middle class are the casualties of a Romney as President!
So where is Bain Capital making its investment......America? Think again
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/21/us-japan-summit-bain-idUSTRE75K0XE20110621
Bain Capital is working but not just here in the United States
FUCB! You are an Uncle Tom. I now rank you behind Clarence Thomas on my "Uncle Tom List". Please do not call yourself a Democrat. You are an OREO.
Mitt Romney is claiming that he cut spending during his governorship in Massachusetts, but what he really should be doing is cutting the B.S.
Ask Mr Romney what he did with my wife's pension.
Keep Hitting them with the TRUTH and the Faces and Stories of People that have been hurt by this Trickle Down BS !!!
Scott Walker needs to be booted from office and also walker is trying to abolish union workers in Wisconsin
at stupida if your boy romney gets in taxes will be 2x higher bush era taxes will still be there for the rich and unemployment will be past the 8% more Americans will depend on state aid under Romney's plan and more than 12 million people will be unemployed under his tax plan he's all about the profits and not for the people u right wing liberal
Obama has it right - Bain is a relevant topic and he is right to talk about it, Romney uses it in his resume and let's take a close look at that. This Booker thing will blow over, something else will takes its place and Obama will stay on message and defend his policies. Romney will have to defend his too, its fair game.
Yesterday, Newark, New Jersey Mayor Cory Booker (D) attacked the Obama campaign for making an issue of Mitt Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital during an appearance on Meet the Press. While the progressive leader later backed off the criticisms, Republicans have been quick to highlight his comments as an attack against the idea that scrutiny of Mitt Romney’s record as a businessman is fair game.
A ThinkProgress examination of New Jersey campaign finance records for Booker’s first run for Mayor — back in 2002 — suggests a possible reason for his unease with attacks on Bain Capital and venture capital. They were among his earliest and most generous backers.
Contributions to his 2002 campaign from venture capitalists, investors, and big Wall Street bankers brought him more than $115,000 for his 2002 campaign. Among those contributing to his campaign were John Connaughton ($2,000), Steve Pagliuca ($2,200), Jonathan Lavine ($1,000) — all of Bain Capital. While the forms are not totally clear, it appears the campaign raised less than $800,000 total, making this a significant percentage.
He and his slate also jointly raised funds for the “Booker Team for Newark” joint committee. They received more than $450,000 for the 2002 campaign from the sector — including a pair of $15,400 contributions from Bain Capital Managing Directors Joshua Bekenstein and Mark Nunnelly. It appears that for the initial campaign and runoff, the slate raised less than $4 million — again making this a sizable chunk.
How many jobs did Mitt Romney create in any 3yr period? My guess is no where near what President Obama has....and Mitt would have been profiting from those jobs.
I hope those of his following who are unemployed or underemployed realize that jobs won't materialize days after inauguration. Tax cuts for the rich will come first. Meanwhile, there will be no unemployment insurance extensions. No help with healthcare, food stamps, etc.
When Booker tried to retract what he said It made him look like a complete idiot. It's obvious the White House got to him.
President obama said last night on TV "Presidents are not supposed to worry about making profits"!!
And it shows!!!!!!!!!!! over 8% unemployment, over 40 million on food stamps, over 12 million out of work.
Hey obama when the economy does not make profits people lose their JOBS!!!!
But what do you care? you mr obama have made millons on the tax payers back!!!