I agree, the next poll could say something different. But it does show that the public is open to considering some of Romney’s background to be a plus.
That is one very interesting question. We know about a third of voters will never vote for Obama, so I would expect Gov. Romney picks up that amount in polls of who the voters view favorably. Given that he picks up another 10% or so of supporters one must assume the GOP’s argument, “Cut taxes, cuts regulations, cut government, reduce the deficit and repeal the ACA” has some effect. That there is no detail or comprehensive plan associated with this rhetoric I suppose another 10 - 15% of likely voters are waiting to decide on the details and, “how will this effect me”.
They’re the independents and I suspect many hold the same opinion of Gov. Romney which I do, that is, “Where’s the Beef”? Most of what I get from the Governor is a form of bait and switch - beef one day, pork another and then mystery meat.
Romney’s business experience may not (and IMO will not) transfer over to governance. The essential part of a business plan is profit; government ‘business plans’ are focused on outcomes not profit.
from a rich guy’s point of view, they’re focused purely on profit.
There’s more to it than that. Efficiency is an important part of business and that’s something Romney specialized in. Plus he did get to put his experience to work in Massachusetts, and I’ve cited the positive aspects of his record earlier in the thread.
And officials do seek profit, it’s just that profit in government means more than just money. It means influence, patronage, and increasing one’s status and power.
If Romney’s stint in massachusetts is any indication, those are the negative aspects of governance that he’s not very good at. His cabinet was picked based on managerial abilities rather than partisan affiliation. No patronage for this guy.
I do not know what you are referring to and I assume you are mischaracterizing Geithner’s position. From Bloomberg, I quote a June 2011 letter sent to Jim DeMint, who blithely asserted that the Federal government could just keep up with its interest payments and all would be honky-dory: DeMint’s proposal “is based on an untested and unacceptably risky assumption: that if the United States were to continue to pay interest on its debt – yet failed to pay legally required obligations to its citizens, servicemen and women, and businesses – there would be no adverse market reaction and no damage to the full faith and credit of the United States,” Geithner said. DeMint and 16 other Republican senators made the suggestion in a letter last month to Geithner.
“You are also mistaken when you state that Treasury has ‘prioritized’ payments in the past,” Geithner wrote. “This is false. Never has Treasury failed to meet any obligation as a result of a debt-limit impasse, nor has Treasury ever ‘prioritized’ payments. Congress has never failed to raise the debt limit when necessary.” And that’s why patriots have always supported the Gephardt rule. Furthermore: “The federal debt ceiling should be raised expeditiously to avoid a severe shock to the economy and world financial markets,” the IMF said in a report on the U.S. economy. The report said a failure to reach a budget and debt compromise could result in a “sudden increase in interest rates and/or a sovereign downgrade.”
Standard & Poor’s in April put the U.S. government on notice that it risks losing its top credit rating unless policy makers agree on a plan by 2013 to reduce budget deficits and the national debt. S&P wasn’t kidding. Following the shenanigans delivered by the House Republicans, they downgraded US debt: unlike tiny New Zealand and crisis-embedded Germany, the US is no longer rated AAA by S&P. Shameful behavior by a party that lost its sense of shame during the 1990s.
You just made that up, didn’t you? It seems I was amiss for taking you at your word, and for that I apologize to the board.
Wikipedia on Sports Authority: The Sports Authority, Inc. was founded in Lakes Mall in Lauderdale Lakes, Florida by a syndicate of venture capital groups and several key founding executives. Jack A. Smith, formerly COO of Herman’s World of Sports, CEO… The venture capital syndicate was led by William Blair Venture Partners and included First Chicago Venture Partners, Bain Capital, Phillips-Smith Venture Partners, Marquette Venture Partners, and Bessemer Securities.
The Sports Authority, Inc. opened its first store in November 1987 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. In 1990 Kmart acquired the company. So, no. Bain was part of a consortium of venture capital firms that provided start-up funds. Nothing wrong with that. But nothing special either. And nobody was “ailing”.
LA Times on Domino’s: Domino’s Pizza founder Tom Monaghan said Friday that he is retiring and selling a controlling stake of the entire company to a Massachusetts investment firm so that he can devote his time to charity.
Bain Capital Inc. will pay about $1 billion…
“Pizza is a thriving business,” said Mitchell Speiser, a Lehman Bros. analyst. The sale “could be a precursor to some kind of [public] offering.” So, no, Domino’s Pizza wasn’t “ailing”. What was happening is that Bain was arranging the books for a pubic offering that occurred in 2004. Nothing wrong with that: Tom Monaghan’s core competence was baking pizza, while Bain’s was financial engineering. So the former sold the firm to the latter. Domino's Founder to Retire, Sell Stake
Romney was a financier. I trust he has some technical skills and his schtick was successful in closing deals among businessmen. But I’ve yet to see an example of turnaround artistry and at any rate that’s a different skill than running an economy or negotiating with congress. Given the number of deals that Bain made, I’m surprised that nobody has come up with a single example of true re-organization.
In the future, please do not fabricate evidence adaher.
I did not claim that Bain started Sports Authority or Dominos. Only that they were ailing, and I know this because of friends who worked for those companies. Sports Authority was desperately cash poor after a fast expansion, and Dominos was hurting bad due to the emergence of Papa John’s as a major competitor. THey took a big chunk out of Pizza Huts’ revenues as well.
- Bain played a role in Sports Authority’s success
Romney and Co. were “among a handful of venture-capital firms that helped found the Sports Authority” by forking over much-needed cash in exchange for a minority stake, says The Washington Post. At the time, Sports Authority had fewer than 10 stores, and was hungry for money to fuel its expansion. By the time Romney left Bain, Sports Authority had exploded, and employed nearly 14,000 people across the country.
The interwebs seem to disagree with me on Dominos’ finances, but I remember all the closed stores around that time. And in any case, it doesn’t matter. Bain made a lot of money off Dominos:
http://articles.boston.com/2012-01-26/business/30672988_1_debt-bain-capital-high-levels
And then there’s Staples, the company no one disputes Bain helped found.
Oh, and Bain itself, which was a turnaround story.
And here is a balanced article about Bain’s turnaround stories:
Now if we’re talking about making things up, the contention that Bain did NOT turn around companies is a huge whopper.
Sure, there was this steel mill that was turning a profit and the employees were hard-working and well-paid. Romney turned that right around, pillaged the company and plundered the assets. But it’s all just fine, Mittens made enough off of the workers’ pensions to buy himself an elevator for his cars.
There were failures in a minority of cases. Romney has said he’d love to compare his record of investing in companies and making them successful to the President’s. How’s he doing helping startups get off the ground? How is he doing at turning around ailing businesses?
Seems to me he’s getting 10% of the results while spending ten times as much money.
To further clarify, the Sept 1998 article says that Bain WILL BUY Dominoes in the future. Dominoes was perfectly fine at the time, the owner just wanted to retire after HE BUILT the business. Now, ROMNEY left Bain in FEB 1999. So, it is possible that Romney wasn’t even around at the time of purchase and (as has been insisted by adaher) would have had NOTHING to do with the IPO.
Funny, how Dominoes got so bad that they (DOMINOES) actually had to run ad campaigns for nearly the entire year of 2010 begging customers to come back and try their ‘new’ and ‘improved’ pizza. Since I was traveling all of that year, I broke down one night and ordered from Dominoes. It was the first time that I seriously considered calling them to send a driver back to pick up the pizza and give me a refund. That stuff was BAD.
I don’t know. The Nevada GOP doesn’t want Romney to have to go up against “None of the Above.” So even the GOP doesn’t count on the anti-Obama vote going entirely to Romney. ( http://www.nationaljournal.com/2012-presidential-campaign/in-nevada-none-a-fearsome-foe-for-the-gop-20120716 )
From your article (of 77 companies examined):
So, of 50 states, 5 will do good (meh… at least one of those will later go down in flames anyway, but it won’t be Romney’s fault). Then 30% (or 15 states) will be gutted out and sold off for parts and then we’ll just throw the debt and pensions liability to… oh, wait? who’s going to bail out the US pensions when Romney guts the US and puts it up for sale? Do you think China will be happy to come to bankruptcy court?
Yes, bankruptcy is a business move… BUT bankruptcy is telling the people that you owe genuine debt to that they can just go pound salt. Do you really think the US can get away with that sort of ‘business management’? How can anyone respect a business man who takes the goods and services of honest companies, then basically tells them to f** off in bankruptcy court? Sure, stuff happens and you might have to do it once, but to have a 30% track record?
Perhaps someone should do an ad talking to all the small business owners that were stiffed by Bain companies.
Um, the US does get away with that record of business management, but I’ve heard it’s all okay since they are only rewarding cronies rather than trying to make a profit themselves.
They tend to fall apart in a crisis.
Please do not muddy the waters. You said Sports Authority was “ailing when Bain acquired them.” That’s false. Bain was part of a consortium that founded Sports Authority. It could not have been ailing before that, because it didn’t exist before that.
Dominos has been handled upthread by Enkel. They were not ailing when Romney acquired them. Quite the contrary. I gave the cite.
Stop making things up and blowing smoke.
“Desperately needed cash” was the phrase used to describe Sports Authority’s predicament when Bain invested in them.
Now maybe Dominos wasn’t ailing nationally, but I do remember them having serious problems in South Florida with stores closing, and they were falling headlong towards being the #3 national chain.
And I’d urge you to stop making up weird theories about how Romney did not actually turn anything around when he was with Bain. You just made that up because you didn’t want to believe it.
Silly.
They had a boatload of financial supporters. Bain didn’t even play a leading role.
And when was that? And why do you believe it coincided with the takeover by Bain?
The Lehman guy said that the Pizza business was doing great at the time. I quoted him upthread.
Nice try. I haven’t fabricated anything and I’m not blowing smoke. Let’s take it from the top, shall we?
I’m calling foul. adaher can make shit up faster than I can track it down after all.