Team Obama implies most Bain Capital companies went bankrupt

thisistwitchy | 1:15 PM on May 14, 2012

Foreshadowing what is likely to be one of the Democrats’ main arguments in this year’s presidential campaign, President Obama’s team is attempting to portray Bain Capital as a vulture company that destroyed the companies in which it invested.

The Obama campaign doesn’t say explicitly that most of the companies in which Bain Capital invested went bankrupt, but it is strongly implied. “Load a company up with debt, get millions of dollars of profit, leave it bankrupt: that’s Romney economics” (emphasis added).

The insinuation is completely untrue. In January, the Wall Street Journal conducted a comprehensive assessment of 77 companies in which Bain invested between 1984 and 1998. Most of these companies were troubled and many probably would have ended up bankrupt even if Bain Capital had not come along. Of the companies assessed by the Journal, 60 of the companies (78 percent) were still in operation eight years after Bain’s investment. Most of the remaining 17 (22 percent) were no longer controlled by Bain at the time they declared bankruptcy or ceased operations.

It was disgraceful when Newt Gingrich and Gov. Rick Perry demonized Bain Capital. It is equally disgraceful when President Obama’s campaign does so.

Some responses from conservatives on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/#!/GucciMama/status/202071713335349252

https://twitter.com/#!/Lar_Har/status/202063627371552768

https://twitter.com/#!/greg_zemaitis/status/202057490987360257

We don’t recall Romney ever saying this. In addition to running a highly successful buyout firm, he also served as Governor of Massachusetts and President and CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, which organized the 2002 Winter Olympics. By contrast, President Obama has never founded or operated a business. Up until he ran for President he had never served as chief executive of any organization, as far as we know.

And the anti-Bain distortions just keep on coming:

https://twitter.com/#!/BarackObama/status/202112609170886656

https://twitter.com/#!/BarackObama/status/202115373431128065

Bain put thousands of people out of work? Workers lost out? Really?