Althouse: "There's this vampire story — that Bain comes in and shows its teeth and sucks the blood out of the operation."

September 7, 2012

"There's this vampire story — that Bain comes in and shows its teeth and sucks the blood out of the operation."

The Romney campaign, fighting back on the GST Steel story.

40 comments:

A. Shmendrik said...: Good ad. I don't know if I would move the vampire quote to the beginning of the ad or not. The private equity business isn't that complex to explain, but it may be on the far side of the undecided voter's attention and comprehension. So you have to combat the sloganeering of the Obama camp with something equally simple. It's too bad, but if you engage in a fully developed defense on this issue, you loose the voter in question.; 9/7/12, 3:25 PM
Matt Sablan said...: No "I'm Mitt Romney, I approve this message?" It's a good piece, but sadly, irrational people won't care one way or the other.; 9/7/12, 3:25 PM
Hagar said...: Well, there have been - and are - some notable Democrat contributors who have operated that way, so they think everyone must be the same. Democrats think in blocks, not diversity.; 9/7/12, 3:26 PM
Matt Sablan said...: Though, as with most regular every day people appearing to publicly support a Republican, I hope this guy has kept his nose clean, otherwise, it will all come out.; 9/7/12, 3:26 PM
Curious George said...: Gotta start hitting that grifter on all the green energy debacles. HARD. Solyndra, BrightSource...; 9/7/12, 3:28 PM
chickelit said...: I'm starting to get irked by the purpleness of Obama's lips. I think he may be suffering from porphyria.

When he was first elected, I couldn't get over the incipient Cantinflas moustache always threatening to sprout above his lip. Highly distracting.; 9/7/12, 3:30 PM
gadfly said...: Before this testimonial, there were people who didn't know the GST-Armco tale. Now they see only the Mitt - Bain side without having heard the accusations.

Intelligent people will understand, but the unionists with rings in their noses will hear: "See, now we have them on the run, because they are weakly reacting to our truth that working people were harmed by Bain."

Pull the ad and move on.; 9/7/12, 3:48 PM
Curious George said...: This would help, who parks money at Bain:

* Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund ($2.2 million)
* Indiana Public Retirement System ($39.3 million)
* Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System ($177.1 million)
* The Los Angeles Fire and Police Pension System ($19.5 million)
* Maryland State Retirement and Pension System ($117.5 million)
* Public Employees’ Retirement System of Nevada ($20.3 million)
* State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio ($767.3 million)
* Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System ($231.5 million)
* Employees’ Retirement System of Rhode Island ($25 million)
* San Diego County Employees Retirement Association ($23.5 million)
* Teacher Retirement System of Texas ($122.5 million)
* Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System ($15 million); 9/7/12, 3:50 PM
Temujin said...: I was going to say something stirring, but I got completely thrown off by the Cantinflas reference from Chickelit. What were we talking about?

Oh yeah...the guy in the video. He must be eliminated. Oh wait...that's rather eliminationist of me. OK then...he must be Cantinflassed.; 9/7/12, 3:50 PM
campy said...: Gotta start hitting that grifter on all the green energy debacles. HARD. Solyndra, BrightSource...

Uh uh. That'd be RAAAAACIST.; 9/7/12, 3:54 PM
test said...: Curious George said...
Gotta start hitting that grifter on all the green energy debacles. HARD. Solyndra, BrightSource...

There are so many good commercials to be aired. Use them all.; 9/7/12, 3:57 PM
test said...: gadfly said...
Pull the ad and move on.

Right, the best defense is a good offense.; 9/7/12, 4:01 PM
test said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 9/7/12, 4:01 PM
Larry J said...: Also, tie in the fact that one of Obama's big bundlers was actually running Bain when that steel company was closed.

And show how Obama bundlers got taxpayer support loans and sweetheart deals for their "green energy" firms.

Obama 2012: Because 4 years of failure and corruption aren't enough!; 9/7/12, 4:01 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: The B is for Bain Capital... and the S is for Sucking blood.; 9/7/12, 4:02 PM
Anonymous said...: The market for steel is depressed every where. Too much capacity; low demand.; 9/7/12, 4:02 PM
edutcher said...: This is where the Romster's $200B starts to be heard.

chickelit said...

I'm starting to get irked by the purpleness of Obama's lips. I think he may be suffering from porphyria.

Back before it was deemed rraaaccciiisssssttt, some people called Choom, Ol' Purple Lips.; 9/7/12, 4:03 PM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: So Obama and his team are liars?

Oh, yeah, I know that already.; 9/7/12, 4:09 PM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Gotta start hitting that grifter on all the green energy debacles. HARD. Solyndra, BrightSource...

Abound Solar...; 9/7/12, 4:12 PM
The Godfather said...: Glad to know the ad is out there, but I can't imagine an undecided voter sitting through it and getting the point.; 9/7/12, 4:23 PM
yashu said...: Heh chickelit, I'm with Karnival, love the Cantinflas reference.

Which takes me back to the Spanish language TV of my childhood. Excuse my self-indulgent reminiscence, but I've always thought there should be more political references to El Chapulín Colorado. "¡No contaban con mi astucia!"

I find pretty much all the famous Chapulín phrases, conveniently listed by Wikipedia here, relevant to this campaign season.; 9/7/12, 4:27 PM
Michael K said...: The green energy debacle is the best target but you have to have an IQ above room temperature to understand Romney and his career. That is a big handicap.

Michael Medved had another of the "ethnic callers" on his show today. I wonder how much the DNC pays them? They can't get very far off the script without making fools of themselves. Do the Democrats think that is helping ?; 9/7/12, 4:31 PM
YoungHegelian said...: How does one explain standard business concepts like "depreciation" and carrying over losses from year to year to folks who just have no experience in the matter? Have you ever tried to explain that corporations pay taxes on PROFITS while salaried/hourly waged individuals pay taxes on adjusted INCOME?

I can already see your eyeballs glazing over.....

The basics of corporate accounting aren't quantum mechanics difficult, but they're definitely not in everyone's day to day experience. That's why attacks such as Obama's on Bain & Romney can get such traction.; 9/7/12, 4:51 PM
Cedarford said...: I would think that Bain itself needs to run an ad or two, with Democrats on its workforce (yes, its about 50-50) agreeing to say they are Democrats and proud to be with a "sterling firm"; 9/7/12, 5:18 PM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: Shorter Young Helgian

People are stupid.

I agree.

" Have you ever tried to explain that corporations pay taxes on PROFITS while salaried/hourly waged individuals pay taxes on adjusted INCOME"

Try to explain the inverse relationship between interest rates and a fixed income investment's market value.; 9/7/12, 5:19 PM
PatCA said...: Life is hard. Sometimes your life is controlled by other people and events. Who would you rather control your livelihood, private investors or the gubmint?

With Bush/Cheney we heard incessantly about Halliburton and the secret energy meetings. Today we see, out loud and proud, one company of blood sucking parasites after the other. So far, the GOP seems to have disbursed the least amount of taxpayer money to business.

These days, I say "compared to what" a lot so I'll go with the GOP.; 9/7/12, 5:42 PM
Craig Howard said...: sadly, irrational people won't care one way or the other.

I hope we're not to the point that we need the "irrational" vote. A majority of the rest will do.; 9/7/12, 6:08 PM
Tim said...: Marshal said...

"gadfly said...
Pull the ad and move on."

"Right, the best defense is a good offense."

Is the ad being aired? Or is it just on the internet?

If it's just on the internet, no harm - but potentially helpful.

Imagine one's idiot Obama-voting relative/colleague/friend spewing Obama-lies about Bain, one sends them the link and shut them down.

I seriously doubt the Romney campaign is airing this ad, but I don't live in a battleground state, so I could be wrong.; 9/7/12, 6:23 PM
Methadras said...: Curious George said...

This would help, who parks money at Bain:

* Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund ($2.2 million)
* Indiana Public Retirement System ($39.3 million)
* Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System ($177.1 million)
* The Los Angeles Fire and Police Pension System ($19.5 million)
* Maryland State Retirement and Pension System ($117.5 million)
* Public Employees’ Retirement System of Nevada ($20.3 million)
* State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio ($767.3 million)
* Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System ($231.5 million)
* Employees’ Retirement System of Rhode Island ($25 million)
* San Diego County Employees Retirement Association ($23.5 million)
* Teacher Retirement System of Texas ($122.5 million)
* Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System ($15 million)

Telling isn't it? Who would you want to invest your money with, Bain/Romney or Urkel?; 9/7/12, 6:23 PM
Bryan C said...: I don't think most people are as dumb as the Democrats wish they were. You can be certain that we'll see Obama attack Bain again either directly or by media proxy. Ceding every issue to the "too complicated" pile is not going to help us. Romney's focus is the economy and Paul Ryan is on the ticket. What are we waiting for?; 9/7/12, 6:36 PM
Ctmom4 said...: I don't understand why they don't just keep saying "78% success rate. 78% success rate." That seems simple enough to me that even Democrats would understand. Although math is hard.; 9/7/12, 6:52 PM
Joe said...: What people fail to understand is that without Bain, most of distressed companies they took over would have failed. People make the same mistake when it comes to offshoring; they assume the affected company, department or project would have continued without any changes.; 9/7/12, 7:43 PM
Richard Dolan said...: The vampire (bad) vs. blood transfusion (good) metaphor at the heart of this ad is really strange. I realize that they are reacting to the other side's stuff and characterizing O's ads as righty politicos would see them. But, still, given who the audience is (the least tuned in and most easily tuned out), they could have taken a page from Clint's playbook and done it with humor rather than sarcasm.

Perhaps the ad's author used the 'blood' metaphor because Team R intends to show it at the American College of Hematologists or something? Likely to be an R-leaning crowd. Or maybe the guy who wrote the script (has to have been a guy, agreed?) was a Stephanie Meyer wannabe?

Whatever. An ad like this would have been a great idea two months ago, even though better late than never. Still the script could have used a rewrite, and a lighter touch.; 9/7/12, 8:52 PM
Richard Dolan said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 9/7/12, 8:54 PM
furious_a said...: Joe Soptic would have lost his job and his insurance in 1993 (instead of 2001) had Bain not kept GST on life support.; 9/7/12, 9:23 PM
a psychiatrist who learned from veterans said...: Wouldn't change a thing. Well, maybe would have the Democrats nominate as il principle Ilya Somin on Volokh, but I digress.; 9/7/12, 10:43 PM
stlcdr said...: Working in the steel industry, I know exactly what happened with GST (although it occurred when I was just starting in steel).

But it doesn't matter. Facts don't matter, as long as you put forward a good sob story (real or not) which gives a reason to not vote for the Other Guy.

The Other Guy you didn't like anyway, because he is 'rich' [richer than you] and since it's a zero sum game (sic) he must have got that way way taking from others. If only I had some touchy-feely evidence...

I don't particularly 'like' Romney. But I'm not voting him into my 'friends' list: I'm voting for the chief to run a Big-Fking-Country. President of the United States, not the President of the Majority of the People.; 9/8/12, 5:20 AM
stlcdr said...: Working in the steel industry, I know exactly what happened with GST (although it occurred when I was just starting in steel).

But it doesn't matter. Facts don't matter, as long as you put forward a good sob story (real or not) which gives a reason to not vote for the Other Guy.

The Other Guy you didn't like anyway, because he is 'rich' [richer than you] and since it's a zero sum game (sic) he must have got that way way taking from others. If only I had some touchy-feely evidence...

I don't particularly 'like' Romney. But I'm not voting him into my 'friends' list: I'm voting for the chief to run a Big-Fking-Country. President of the United States, not the President of the Majority of the People.; 9/8/12, 5:21 AM
a psychiatrist who learned from veterans said...: Working in the steel industry, I know exactly what happened with GST.

Don't spare me the details.; 9/8/12, 8:39 AM
Wince said...: The really good part is that the Democrats can't use a cross to ward-off a vampire.; 9/8/12, 8:55 AM