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Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TideGlider who wrote (133245)	5/21/2012 9:40:05 PM
From: Hope Praytochange	2 Recommendations Respond to of 224708

Cory Booker And The Bain Of Obama's Existence Campaign 2012: Newark's mayor succumbs to administration thought control after going off-script and praising the private-equity firm that succeeded in creating net jobs, unlike presidential investment Solyndra. The White House must have had a bad case of the vapors when Newark Mayor Cory Booker, viewed in some quarters as a practical, non-ideological problem-solver, praised the record of Mitt Romney's former private firm Bain Capital, before a national audience on NBC's "Meet The Press," and eschewed attacks of a type he found "nauseating." "I have to just say from a very personal level, I'm not about to sit here and indict private equity," Booker said, referring to an Obama campaign ad that spotlighted the story of a Kansas City steel company that went bankrupt after Bain's involvement. The attack ad blamed Romney and his investment firm for the failure of GST Steel, a Kansas City, Mo.-based company, two years after Romney had left Bain. It also ignored Bain successes such as Steel Dynamics Inc., where Bain's involvement helped create 6,000 jobs. Booker compared what he himself needed to do after becoming mayor of his beleaguered New Jersey city with the tough love often practiced by private equity firms such as Bain. "This is not about what happened at Bain Capital. Heck, I've reduced the employees in my city 25% because it's the only way my government would survive. Call me a job-cutter, if you want." We would prefer waste-cutter, Mayor Booker. Unlike the federal government and an administration that can print and borrow money to keep alive failed policies and "investments" in things like green energy, cities and businesses sometimes must face the reality of their situations and make tough choices. Some do and succeed while others don't and fail. Private equity firms such as Bain Capital just don't pick winners and losers based on ideology and "invest" with other people's money. Capitalism is a lot like gardening. It prunes the dead branches of those plants and trees deemed to have a chance to succeed in the expectation of reviving the business and reaping a word anathema to this administration — profit. Sometimes you just have to pull the weeds and the dead plants. "If you look at the totality of Bain Capital's record, they've done a lot to support businesses, to grow businesses," Booker said before the word came down from on high that he had strayed off the reservation. By Sunday night, Booker had released a YouTube video backtracking and saying such an examination of Romney's business record is "reasonable" and he "encourages" it. He also made it clear that Obama "more than deserves re-election." Really? That must have been some strong Kool-Aid Booker was forced to drink. Unemployment has been over 8% for some 40 months now, the longest streak of misery since the Great Depression. True jobless numbers, if you count part-timers who can't find full-time work and those who have given up looking (324,000 women in March and April) are in the double-digit range. What if Bain Capital ran the federal government? Payrolls would be slashed and entire cabinet departments would vanish. Pipelines would be built while energy from algae would be laughed out of the boardroom. High-speed trains to nowhere wouldn't be funded as our space program is put in a museum. Money wasted on electric cars that catch fire would be shifted to research on shale oil extraction technology. Finally, the board of directors on Capitol Hill and the CEO in the White House would be answerable to the shareholders in America Inc. — the taxpayers. You had it right the first time, Cory.