Has President Barack Obama caught Romney in a confusing situation?

President Obama and Romney
President Obama and Romney

By Roger Caldwell

 

    There is a major discrepancy with Mitt Romney’s assertion that he stopped managing Bain Capital in 1999, and he made no managerial or corporate decisions as the CEO of the company. Based on his statements, Romney wants the American people to believe that he had no role in investments and operational decisions in the company that he started, even though he continued to sign Bain Capital documents as the CEO.

    During this period between 1999 and 2002 Romney received a salary of $100,000 from the company, but according to him he did nothing. “Either Mitt Romney, through his own words and his own signature was misrepresenting his position at Bain to the SEC, which is a felony, or he was misrepresenting his position at Bain to the American people to avoid responsibility for some of the consequences of his investments,” said Stephanie Cutter, Obama’s deputy campaign manager.

    As Romney continues to run for president, it is imperative that Romney releases his financial records and explain why his signature is on many of the corporate documents to the SEC after 1999. It is obvious that after Romney becomes the Governor of Massachusetts there is not found any more of his signatures on Bain Capital documents. But in 2001, there are documents that Romney attended Bain Capital board meetings.

    When Romney decided to run for president, one of his major achievements was that he had a record of creating jobs. The centerpiece of Romney’s campaign was his private sector experience of building companies and growing companies. But during the Republican primary, his opponents claimed that Romney dismantled and bankrupted companies to make a profit and outsource jobs to countries with low wages.

    Romney is now a multi-millionaire and his Republican opponents have classified Bain Capital as a “looter of companies” and a “vulture of companies.” These names are nothing to be proud of, and the last two weeks Romney has tried to develop a public relations campaign to improve his image. The core pillar and foundation that Romney used to grow his popularity has become a liability, and now he is running the other way.

    This is not the first time that Romney was running for a political office and there were questions and inconsistencies concerning his time at Bain Capital. When Romney ran for Governor of Massachusetts, Democrat Governor Candidate Shannon O’Brien talked about how Bain Capital made substantial profits from investing in a steel mill that went bankrupted.

    “I think that after 10 years, it’s really making sure that you hold someone accountable for statements that they make. Former Governor Romney has demonstrated a pattern of basically not being completely transparent about his financial dealings. When pressed about the bankruptcies and the lost jobs, well, then he doesn’t want to have anything to do with that,” said Democrat Shannon O’Brien.

    The Boston Globe 10 years ago reported, “Romney has taken responsibility for making the initial investment but has said he could not be blamed for managements decisions at the company. Even though Romney signed the corporate documents as the CEO, went to board meetings, collected $100,000 salary, he claims, he did nothing at Bain Capital.

    Romney needs to come clean with his role in Bain Company and come clean with his investments in offshore accounts. Romney can run from the truth, but his companies’ unethical practices do not pass the smell test. If Romney’s businesses do not pass the smell test, I wonder if Americans can trust Romney to run the country with integrity and credibility.     

 

About Carma Henry 24475 Articles
Carma Lynn Henry Westside Gazette Newspaper 545 N.W. 7th Terrace, Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33311 Office: (954) 525-1489 Fax: (954) 525-1861

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