An unrelenting President Barack Obama jabbed at Mitt Romney’s record with a private equity firm in an ad Saturday that aimed to keep his rival on the defensive just as the Republican challenger’s campaign hoped to take advantage of poor economic data to gain an edge on the incumbent. Obama met Romney’s plea for an apology for the attacks with a mocking ad that charged that the firm shipped American jobs to China and Mexico, that Romney has personal wealth in investments in Switzerland, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, and that as Massachusetts governor, he sent state jobs to India.
“Mitt Romney’s not the solution. He’s the problem,” the ads says as Romney is heard singing America the Beautiful.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney says he left management of Bain Capital to others years before what records indicate. (Rick Wilking/Reuters)
Pressure was building on Romney from within his own party to be more forthcoming with his finances, a day after he declared he would not release past income tax returns beyond his 2010 tax records and, before the November election, his 2011 taxes
A soaked Obama, campaigning in a downpour in closely contested Virginia, hewed to his middle class-centered pitch in remarks in Glen Allen, which lies in the district represented by one of his top Republican nemeses, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. He attacked Romney and his Republican allies for pursuing what the president branded as outdated and discredited economic policies.
Obama didn’t dwell on Romney’s business record, leaving the sharpest attacks to his campaign and the new television commercial. Still he played up the charge that Romney and the private equity firm he founded in 1984, Bain Capital, sent jobs overseas.
“He invested in companies that have been called pioneers of outsourcing,” the president said, his shirt drenched and water streaming down his face. “I don’t want pioneers in outsourcing, I want some insourcing. I want to bring companies back.”
Romney’s spokeswoman, Andrea Saul, fired back Saturday, accusing the president of being less than truthful about Romney’s record.
“The American people deserve the truth and they certainly deserve better from their president,” Saul said, from Boston.
While Obama hammered Romney for a second consecutive day in Virginia, Romney spent time with his family in New Hampshire. The candidate, taking a weekend off from public events, spent the morning at his lake house, working on his iPad on the lawn while his grandchildren played nearby.
‘No role whatsoever in the management’ of company
The intensifying attacks and the calls for greater openness came amid stepped up attention to discrepancies between Securities and Exchange Commission filings and Romney’s recollection of his role at Boston-based Bain Capital.
At stake is Romney’s chief contention that as a former businessman, he has the experience to create jobs and spur a struggling economy. The Obama campaign has countered that Romney ran a firm that pioneered the practice of sending American jobs out of the country and that his background is one of an investor.
Romney insists that he stepped down from his private equity firm years earlier than federal records indicate
And he demanded an apology from Obama for the attacks. “This is simply beneath the dignity of the presidency of the United States,” Romney told ABC.
Obama said the questions raised in numerous media reports and highlighted by his own campaign aides were a legitimate part of the race for the White House. In trying to put the matter behind him and return the campaign to his economic arguments, Romney declared he had “no role whatsoever in the management” of the company after he left to take over the Salt Lake City Olympic Games in early 1999.
Romney acknowledged that he would have benefited financially from Bain’s operations even after he left management of the firm to others. That could open him up to criticism that he gained from investment in companies that sent jobs overseas.
“All of the investors participate in the success or failure of various investments, just like you do as a shareholder of an enterprise,” Romney told CBS.
Bain Capital said in a statement that Romney “remained the sole stockholder for a time while formal ownership was being documented and transferred to the group of partners who took over management of the firm in 1999.”