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Jewish World Review
Jan 17, 2012/ 22 Teves, 5772
Romney must face his work history head-on
By
Michael Smerconish
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
It was as if Oliver Stone had written a Mitt Romney sound bite when last week the candidate was quoted as saying, "I like firing people." After all, Stone directed Michael Douglas, as Gordon Gekko, saying similar things in the 1987 movie classic Wall Street.
Men in their 40s and 50s still quote Gekko: "Lunch is for wimps"; "I create nothing. I own"; "What's worth doing is worth doing for money"; "If you're not inside, you're outside"; and of course, "Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right; greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit."
Gekko would have liked firing people. But in Romney's case, there was more to the story, namely, that he was talking about firing people who offer bad service, in particular, insurance companies. Nevertheless, the "firing" quote helped foster a narrative of Romney as a predatory capitalist. The surprise, to some, is the direction from which this attack is coming: his own party. A Newt Gingrich super PAC has taken this tack in a blunt commercial, and Rick Perry called Romney a "vulture capitalist." To pundits on the right, these criticisms have crossed a line.
Rush Limbaugh said Gingrich was parroting the New York Times and the recent protest movement. "I don't know why the Occupy Wall Street people are protesting Newt," said Limbaugh. "They're singing from the same hymnal on this."
True, a Times editorial this week said, "The problem with Mr. Romney's pitch is the kind of businessman he was: specifically, a buyer of flailing companies who squeezed out the inefficiencies (often known as employees) and then sold or merged them for a hefty profit. ... This kind of leveraged capitalism, which first caught fire in the 1980s, is one of the reasons for the growth in the income gap, tipping the wealth in the economy toward the people at the top."
Guess who agrees with that. Rick Perry, whose "vulture capitalism" comment drew a retort from Sean Hannity. "It almost sounds like Occupy Wall Street," Hannity complained. "It doesn't sound like someone who is governing Texas as a conservative."
Perry didn't back down. "There is a real difference between venture capitalism and vulture capitalism," he told Hannity, adding, "The fact of the matter is he's going to have to face up to this at some time or another."
On that point, Perry is correct. Romney's business background is the elephant in the room, and he needs to address it. Unintentionally, Perry and Gingrich are doing Romney a favor in forcing him to do so sooner rather than later.
In today's "Occupy" climate, with the unemployment rate at 8.5 percent, and with discussions about income disparity part of the election dialogue, of course the brand of capitalism practiced by Romney is going to be a subplot to the election. Some, like Gingrich, Perry, and the Times' editorial board, will see Romney as a New Millennium Gekko, who lined his pockets at the expense of laid-off workers. Others, including Limbaugh, Hannity, and the editorial page of National Review, will applaud his business acumen. ("Wall Street has its share of miscreants, and they should be recognized as such when appropriate. But to abominate Mitt Romney for having been a success at the business of investing in struggling American companies, connecting entrepreneurs with capital and producers with markets, is foolish and destructive," the Review said this week.)
Perhaps that sigh you hear is coming from the White House. Surely, this was to have been the negative narrative the Obama campaign intended to drive in the fall, assuming Romney won the nomination, which grows more likely by the day. Better for Romney that he respond to this criticism now, in front of Republican audiences that will be far more sympathetic to his position than will the Democrats. And by the time the general election rolls around, the issue will still be alive, but now minus its sting.
Not unlike when Barack Obama confronted the Rev. Jeremiah Wright issue with a speech March 18, 2008, at the National Constitution Center in the midst of a bruising primary against Hillary Clinton. Did Fox News show Wright's fiery footage in the fall? Yes, but to most other media outlets, and many voters, the issue was long over, and Obama had survived it.
Of course, the key to Obama's survival was that he addressed that distraction head-on. Romney can have a similar outcome, assuming he does likewise.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment by clicking here.
Previously:
01/11/12 Don't let those gift cards be a gift to retailers or the state
01/03/12 Headlines hoped for in 2012
11/09/11 Romney, beware: Cain may bob through the straits
11/02/11 Where there's ad smoke, there's … what?
10/20/11 After husband is murdered, 30 long years of phone calls
10/13/11 Black women should only marry out of their race?
08/31/11 Some political gaffes really say something
07/27/11 An overture of candidates' theme songs
06/28/11 Where's the app for common sense?
06/02/11 Over-scrutinizing lives costs us potential leaders
04/19/11 Taking a chance to say, ‘Hi’
04/06/11 Race policies should be altered to reflect new demographic reality
11/10/10 Delaware's independent, but short-lived, voice
11/03/10 Papers should leave endorsing to others
10/21/10 Media help to hype perception of bullying
09/23/10 Officer down, killer hyped up
08/04/10 Documents highlight Pakistan's shortcomings as a U.S. ally
07/06/10 On taking back Sept. 11
06/29/10 Name elite corps to develop energy independence?
04/21/10 New account reinforces a serviceman's valor
03/11/10 Medical profession must police itself better
02/18/10 One-trick athletes
02/09/10 Active, retired law officers should be able to carry guns on planes to help stop terrorists
02/04/10 How to bring tech up to speed
01/28/10 Campaign donations must be fully and immediately disclosed online
01/07/10 The flying emperor still has no clothes, and no one is willing to say so
12/24/09 A law to mandate college football playoffs?
12/17/09 Cheney's abuse of freedom of speech
11/26/09 The true cost of freedom from anxiety
10/27/09 If GOP wants to win in 2012, it must reshape its primary process
10/08/09 It's time to get smarter on extended school day
09/03/09 What a summer of eulogizing flawed public figures reveals about society
08/12/09 It's time for cyclists and motorists to reconcile
08/05/09 Faces have changed, but vitriol remains
06/25/09 Fair comment or foul? Warm up the Muzzle Meter
06/08/09 Believability is key in crime-hoax villains
05/14/09 Did Hollywood inspire the meltdown men?
04/20/09 Let's give killers their due: Anonymity
03/12/09 Uninsured who can't afford medical care lose a lot more
02/06/09 My debate with Musharraf on hunt for bin Laden
01/29/09 Torture must remain an option
01/15/09 Making a case for suing Madoff
12/22/08 A difficult but rational chat about ‘plans’
12/17/08 Facebook epidemic: More than 120 million have joined, many too old for this nonsense
12/01/08 The high price of downsizing the news biz
11/14/08 Prescience on greed, arrogance of a system
09/29/08 Closer look at party lines
08/26/08 Obama's pick creates GOP opportunity
08/21/08 Fishing with the Angry Everyman
07/31/08 The perils of e-mail: Ponder, then click
05/22/08 Two very different sides of the Internet
02/12/08 Sublimely ridiculous suits
11/28/08 Cell phones cut out secondary circle of kinship
09/26/07 What do we owe those who have died in Iraq?
08/30/07 A Navy SEAL's gut-wrenching tale of survival
07/30/07 First it was a faux pas, now it's a new word
© 2008, The Philadelphia Inquirer Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services
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