Bain of Our Existence

Occupy Wall Street claimed a stunning victory this week when it was revealed that they have successfully established tent cities in the vacant spaces inside a number of Republican's heads.

Specifically, while Barack Obama is nonchalantly asking to borrow yet another $1.2 trillion, quite a few alleged conservatives are ignoring the issue entirely while attacking Mitt Romney for heartlessly making money and creating jobs (but not saving every worker's job) when he was affiliated with Bain Capital.

In a nutshell, Bain Capital looked for companies which were struggling and bought them at bargain rates. They would then try to determine what was dragging a company down and eliminate those factors in order to make the company profitable (thereby saving and creating jobs). Sometimes, a company couldn't be saved and went out of business, or workforces needed to be downsized - meaning that people lost jobs. That's capitalism...and it is heartless or it couldn't create the prosperity that eventually does create jobs.

But not to hear Newt Gingrich or Rick Perry tell it. Newt's SuperPac committee is running a video called "When Mitt Romney Came To Town" which accuses the photogenic Mormon businessman of every evil deed imaginable except pulling the gold fillings out of Jews' mouths at Auschwitz. Which has certainly helped Hope n' Change narrow the field of GOP candidates we're supporting...though we don't think Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Perry would like our newly revised line-up.

Yes, Mr. Romney was operating out of a desire to make a profit (who isn't?) and he couldn't save every job in every company that Bain worked with. But if Gingrich, Perry, and others find that standard unacceptable, what will come next? Will doctors who work for profit (hint: all of them) be deemed unacceptable if they can't save every patient? And if that did become the standard, what doctor would take on a high-risk case or bother to treat a terminal illness at all?

Clearly such a policy would be nonsense in medicine, it is nonsense in the world of business, and it would be disastrous if it were the mindset of yet another American president.

Here at Hope n' Change, we have our problems with Mitt Romney - but his willingness to cut programs that aren't working and his desire to keep an eye on the financial bottom line aren't among them. In fact, those are some of his better qualities.

Those candidates who are now attacking his record at Bain as "heartless" should take a deep breath and then look at what "governing from the heart" has done to our country: destroyed black families, created massive joblessness, ruined our schools, reduced our national security, and pushed our nation to the brink of extinction owing to unfunded (and unfundable) liabilities.

For any self-proclaimed "conservative" member of the GOP to ignore these truths while repositioning himself as a warmhearted populist is utterly unacceptable. And attempting to move ahead in the polls by damaging Romney's chances to win a general election is detestable.

The way to win this primary and the November election is to sincerely be more like Ronald Reagan. Not more like Barack "Hey, I need another trillion from the Evil Rich" Obama.

Nancy and Newt enjoy watching his attack ads together.
-

READERS (Saturday Update): If you want to read the comments "old school" style (which is much easier on the eyes), just click on the hypertext title of each day's cartoon. Magically, you'll see the cartoon and comments exactly as they used to be. If you wish to leave a comment of your own, click on the tiny "Post a Comment" link after the last comment and a pop-up window will open where you can share YOUR opinion. Thanks to Chuck for bringing this to our attention!

I'll also continue trying to make this the "default" behavior for the site (if possible) to simplify things.-