Politics
Election 2012: Obama heads to Ohio to tout auto bailout, tax policies
Ohio’s Republican governor, John Kasich, often notes that his state’s unemployment rate is lower than the national average. That has proved awkward at times for Romney, who assails Obama’s stewardship of the national economy.
Romney on Monday wrapped up a long weekend at his lake house in the southern state of Louisiana and set out to raise money with Gov. Bobby Jindal, one possible candidate for his running mate.
From afar, Obama and Romney were set to continue a bitter debate over who is more trustworthy and use Romney’s time leading a private equity firm as a starting point.
Romney’s campaign said Sunday that Obama is willing to say anything to win a second term and should say he’s sorry for attacks on the Republican’s successful career at Bain Capital. “No, we will not apologize,” the president responded, adding that if Romney wants credit for his business leadership, he also needs to take responsibility.
Questions about Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital and the fortune he earned there have dogged the former Massachusetts governor as Obama and his allies have said the Boston-based firm shipped jobs overseas while Romney was still leading the company. Romney insists he left the company in February 1999 to take over the 2000 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, but documents suggest he was still in charge as late as 2001.
The exact role Romney played at the firm between 1999 and 2001 is important not only because critics have raised questions about his truthfulness, but also because Bain was sending jobs overseas during that period.
Documents place Romney in charge of Bain from 1999 to 2001, a period in which the company outsourced jobs and ran companies that fell into bankruptcy. Romney has tried to distance himself from this period in Bain’s history, saying on financial disclosure forms he had no active role in Bain as of February 1999.
