Fired Up, Ready To Lose

That sound you hear over the next 17 seconds is Mitt Romney failing like it was Buy One Fail, Get Three Free Day at Mama Jo's House Of Homemade Pies And Failure.  Still, Greg Sargent explains there's more to this video that does put it in context.



Because really, who can resist free pie?   Not Mittens!  Sargent explains:

Romney was saying he likes to have the option of replacing his health insurance if he judges it to be sub par.

Of course, by Romney’s own standard of accuracy, clipping this down to “I like being able to fire people” is completely fair game. As you’ll recall, the Romney campaign boasted about their ad ripping Obama’s words out of context in order to show him saying it’s politically dangerous for him to talk about his economic record, when in fact he was quoting a McCain adviser saying this. Indeed, one Romney adviser even justified this move by claiming that, hey, Obama did say those actual words, and a second adviser said using the snippet is justifiable, because “all ads are propaganda.”

So by Romney’s standard, it wouldn’t be questionable at all to whittle Romney’s quote down to a claim that he enjoys the act of firing people. However, by more conventional standards of accuracy, it would be misleading to do that.

It's using Romney's own standards against him.  I don't really have much of a problem with that, especially since Mitt keeps lying about his record constantly.   James Fallows points out that context or not, who actually says they enjoy firing people as a presidential hopeful?

It's the word fire. I have fired people, and I have been fired -- and there is no comparison in how much more excruciating the former process is. I know, agree with, and have even written a book about all the reasons why "flexibility" in the labor force is a good thing for companies and for the overall economy. People need to be held accountable for good or bad performance. Economies need to be able to move from the old -- old markets, technologies, regions, emphases -- and open up to the new. Companies very often need to "right-size" to survive. We all understand these truths. They are part of America's strength.

But people with any experience on either side of a firing know that, necessary as it might be, it is hard. Or it should be. It's wrenching, it's humiliating, it disrupts families, it creates shame and anger alike -- notwithstanding the fact that often it absolutely has to happen. Anyone not troubled by the process -- well, there is something wrong with that person. We might want such a person to do dirty work for us. (This might be the point where the Romney campaign wants to take another look at Up In The Air.) We might value him or her as a takeover specialist or at a private equity firm. But as someone we trust, as a leader? No - not any more than you can trust a military leader who is not deeply troubled when his troops are killed.

Here's a test: If you were making the point about the need for competition, can you imagine yourself saying, "I like being able to fire people..." ?

It's triply bad for Romney, when the big issue among voters is unemployment, and his major weakness is having run Bain Capital for 15 years, Romney's record on jobs speaks for itself.  When it speaks, it says the word "asshole".

The Wall Street Journal, aiming for a comprehensive assessment, examined 77 businesses Bain invested in while Mr. Romney led the firm from its 1984 start until early 1999, to see how they fared during Bain’s involvement and shortly afterward.

Among the findings: 22% either filed for bankruptcy reorganization or closed their doors by the end of the eighth year after Bain first invested, sometimes with substantial job losses. An additional 8% ran into so much trouble that all of the money Bain invested was lost. [...]

The Journal analysis shows that in total, Bain produced about $2.5 billion in gains for its investors in the 77 deals, on about $1.1 billion invested. Overall, Bain recorded roughly 50% to 80% annual gains in this period, which experts said was among the best track records for buyout firms in that era.

So yes, if you think government should be run like a business, where the 1% gets all the money and the rest of us get shafted and lose craploads of jobs, then Romney's your man.

Romney the "Job Cremator" is going to haunt him in 2012 and far beyond.