Rich... Pardon the Pun

As Jonah Goldberg at NRO and Scott Johnson at Powerline have already pointed out, this is a doosy from President Obama with regard to Romney's time at Bain Capital (bold emphasis mine):

"Ultimately Mr. Romney, I think, is going to have to answer those questions, because if he aspires to being president one of the things you learn is, you are ultimately responsible for the conduct of your operations, but again that's probably a question that he's going to have to answer and I think that's a legitimate part of the campaign."

Awesome!  Mea Culpas, I'm sure, are on the way from the President himself on Fast and Furious, Solyndra and on and on.  I continue to shake my head at the lack of knowledge and ability to think like an adult that comes from this guy.  He has to know that this statement above is exactly as Johnson describes it, an "exploding cigar".  If Obama wants Romney to demonstrate his willingness to take responsibility for things, maybe he should lead by example and apologize and take responsibility for squandering tax payer dollars on stimulus, Solyndra, scandals like Fast and Furious etc etc.  As a great statesman once said, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."

I'll help Romney out and address the OFFSHORING (not outsourcing) and other charges coming from the Left.  Even Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich should take notes, as much as I (generally speaking) like both of them.

Offshoring is sending jobs overseas.  Offshoring is a practice perfectly within the rights of a company to protect their financial interests in the face of oppressive governments and unions.

Oustsourcing is delegating a function to someone, either domestically or internationally, who can perform a function that you either can't do, or can't do efficiently.  If I take my car to a garage to get the muffler replaced, the garage may choose to ship my car off to a muffler shop that specializes in exhaust work, and hand me a slightly marked up bill.

Now that we've cleared that up.  Someone slip that memo to the President.

From The People's Cube

When Bain Capital, or other rescuing firms, swoop in to save a company from itself, their principal interest is in saving the company.  If the company needs only 100 people manning the widget machines, and it has 150, then the loaded wage liability on the struggling company is heavy by 50 people.  Just as I wouldn't pay Jimmy and Timmy both to mow my lawn, company's that are true to the interests of the owners/shareholders are not going to pay for 150 people on the payroll when their business function only calls for 100.  The company doesn't exist for the employees.  It exists for the shareholders/owners.  Capital is not put at risk to keep a six pack of Pabst in the employee's refrigerator.  Its to let the shareholders/owners or those who risked the initial investment see a return on that investment.  However, as we've explained over and over here at JGAH, the benefit to the employees is a steady paycheck and food on their tables.  Employees that are true to the concerns of the owners/shareholders reap the rewards of the company's profitability, too.

Put another way, Bain could have come in and kept the payroll heavy, let the company die from its mortal wounds, and all 150 employees could be left out in the cold as the company goes under.  But tough decisions have to be made to save what's left of the struggling enterprise.  The fact that Obama doesn't understand this (nor most of the basic principles of wealth and free market economics) demonstrates his complete inability to lead a struggling nation out of dismal economic times.  But, what do we expect?  As Daniel Greenfield so eloquently put it, we've put a man with the emotional worldview of a child in charge of the Free World.  We are getting what "we" voted for.

Romney could easily say "Just as Bain entered in to save the struggling company from poor management, I'm going to enter the White House to save America from poor management, namely, the Obama Administration.  I've proven I can do it before, I'll do it again."