Democrats have made sure that blacks (and everyone else too) is as ignorant as possible.
If the students at Howard is any indication of how democrats feel, it's that they want to be infantilized by a paternalistic govenment.
Howard Student To Rand Paul: "I Want A Government That Is Going To Help Me" | RealClearPolitics
This is why Romney lost the election. He was talking about jobs. He made a mistake in thinking that people wanted to be independent. They don't. They want a government that takes care of them and relieves the individual of the responsibility of taking care of himself.
Opinion, and not fact. Real Clear Politics? Really? A decidedly "right wing rag". Infantilized by a paternalistic government???? Really? Some believe that government plays a role in helping those who encounter obstacles in their quest of the American Dream. Even George W. Bush pushed the notion of "compassionate conservatism", which, now, you seem to want to dismiss.
No one takes serious the notion that Democrats want to tie minorities to anybody's plantation, when it's the Republicans, which cater to their core base...."conservative white males", as opposed to any other group or constituency, and have, in place, a racist, bigoted, and misogynistic platform, which seeks to empower its' base, at the expediency and expense of women, gays, minorities, veterans, children, the elderly, and the poor.
The reason Romney lost the election was myriad. And people want a government that is less intrusive, and attentive to their needs as citizens....the bottom line of any democracy.
Get off the mantra of people not desiring to be responsible, not willing to work, or not being able to take care of themselves. Those are Fox News talking points, and having no basis in reality. Of course there are individuals who fit your characterizations, but not in the numbers you suggest. And certainly not "whole groups" defined by race, color, creed, or politics.
Romney "talked" about creating jobs, but has a checkered past in actually doing so. He was also a liar. Claiming to have driven the growth of the office supply chain Staples, I have held stock in that company since it was in its infancy stages and Romney was not the reason for its success. Tom Stemburg, it's founder and a core group of executives made the corporation what it is.
Romney as Job Creator Clashes with Bain Record of Job Cuts
By Justin Blum & Lisa Lerer - Jul 19, 2011 9:01 PM PT
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Republican presidential candidate Mitt RomneyÂ’s campaign misses few opportunities to promote his record creating jobs, including his role in taking Staples Inc. (SPLS) from a start-up to the worldÂ’s largest office-supply retailer.
“You’d have a president who has spent his life in business -- small business, big business -- and who knows something about how jobs are created and how we compete around the world,” he said at a campaign stop last month at Buddy Brew Coffee in Tampa, Florida.
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Republican presidential candidate Mitt RomneyÂ’s campaign misses few opportunities to promote his record creating jobs, including his role in taking Staples Inc. from a start-up to the worldÂ’s largest office-supply retailer. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg
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July 20 (Bloomberg) -- Republican presidential candidate Mitt RomneyÂ’s campaign often promotes his record creating jobs, including his role in taking Staples Inc. from a start-up to the worldÂ’s largest office-supply retailer. What Romney doesn't detail is his experience in eliminating jobs when he was head of private equity firm Bain Capital LLC. Erik Schatzker reports in today's Movers and Shakers on Bloomberg Television's "InsideTrack." (Source: Bloomberg)
What Romney skips is his experience in eliminating jobs. ItÂ’s a facet of his career that presents a particular challenge for the Republican primary frontrunner: Tough business decisions donÂ’t necessarily translate into good politics.
As head of private equity firm Bain Capital LLC, Romney was the lead deal-maker, buying and selling companies to make money for investors. Whether companies boomed or filed for bankruptcy, the Boston-based firm found profits for Romney, its other executives and investors. Romney, who spent most of his career at Bain, estimated his wealth in 2007 at as much as $250 million. He has yet to update his financial status for the 2012 presidential campaign.
Entrepreneurs and corporate founders “create the bulk of the jobs, not the financiers,” said Marc Wolpow, a former Bain managing director who left in 1999 and is now co-chief executive officer of Audax Group, which manages more than $4.8 billion.
“That is not necessarily a good political story for a candidate with a buyout background,” said Wolpow, a Democrat- leaning independent who said he would consider backing Romney in 2012.
1,600 Jobs Cut
At Dade Behring Inc., a medical-testing company based in Deerfield, Illinois, Bain cut at least 1,600 jobs during a series of acquisitions before the firm entered into bankruptcy in 2002. Romney foreshadowed those cuts in a speech to employees shortly after Bain acquired the firm.
DDi Corp., an electronics company in Anaheim, California, filed for bankruptcy in 2003 after Bain sold shares in the company generating at least $85.5 million and billed $10 million in management fees.
GS Industries Inc., a steel company in Charlotte, North Carolina, filed for bankruptcy in 2001 after workers said a chief executive hired under Bain made missteps, including installing managers who lacked industry expertise, former employees said.
Romney Held Responsible
Employees who lost jobs at Bain-controlled companies more than a decade ago say they still hold Romney responsible.
“I would not vote for him for anything,” said Phyllis Detro, 68, who lost her job at a Bain-owned office paper products factory in Marion, Indiana, closed in 1995. “I’d like to see the jobs that he’s created. He has taken away jobs.”
In a presidential campaign becoming a referendum on jobs as the economy struggles with a 9.2 percent unemployment rate, RomneyÂ’s private sector credentials are coming under scrutiny.
A video played when Republican Jon Huntsman Jr. announced his presidential candidacy in New Jersey on June 21 said Huntsman “built things, built jobs -- didn’t just buy them.” Huntsman is a former Utah governor and executive at Huntsman Corp., a chemical company that started as his family’s business in 1970.
Political Scrutiny
Huntsman is following a script written at the start of RomneyÂ’s political career. In a 1994 race against the late U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, Romney was trumpeting his business credentials and leading in the polls -- until KennedyÂ’s campaign turned the spotlight on Bain-backed job cuts at an American Pad & Paper, or Ampad, factory in Indiana that was closed in 1995. Romney went on to win election as governor of Massachusetts, serving from 2003 to 2007.
In 1984, Romney co-founded Bain Capital, whose affiliates now manage about $65 billion. In a corporate statement e-mailed to Bloomberg News, Bain Capital said the firm’s record “will undoubtedly” be distorted in the political debate. “We are proud of the role that our people-intensive, analytical approach has played in growing companies and delivering superior investment returns,” it stated.
In addition to Staples, RomneyÂ’s campaign cites successes at Ann Arbor, Michigan-based DominoÂ’s Pizza Inc., which is now the worldÂ’s second largest pizza-maker behind Yum! Brands Inc.Â’s Pizza Hut, and the Sports Authority Inc., the Englewood, Colorado-based sporting goods chain.
ObamaÂ’s Credentials
Andrea Saul, a Romney campaign spokeswoman, said his business record gives him more expertise than President Barack Obama to “focus on job creation and turn around our nation’s faltering economy.”
Tom Stemberg, a founder of Framingham, Massachusetts-based Staples who convinced Romney in 1985 to help finance the idea for the stores and plot their expansion, said: “He was a brilliant corporate director.”
RomneyÂ’s role with companies varied. With Staples, he sat on the company board for more than a decade. With many others, he left oversight and daily management to his associates appointed to company boards and executives running the businesses, said Wolpow. Executives of several companies bought by Bain said they had little or no interaction with Romney.
Preserved Jobs
Geoffrey Rehnert, a former managing director at Bain who worked for the firm until 1999, said that while Bain was focused on making money, its strategy was to create businesses that created jobs. Rehnert, who is now co-chief executive officer with Wolpow at Audax, said he’s “certain that Bain Capital was a net creator of jobs by a wide margin,” while he had no data to support that. At a minimum, Wolpow said, Bain helped preserve jobs that otherwise might have been lost.
Bain and the campaign didnÂ’t respond to requests for job creation estimates.
A Bloomberg News review of several Bain deals during RomneyÂ’s tenure showed that workers in some firms had indications their jobs might be in jeopardy soon after Bain moved into management. In other cases, pink slips arrived after Bain and its investors had collected their profits and left debts behind.
Interviews with former employees and executives at Bain and companies it controlled, along with a review of BainÂ’s activities described in public documents and news accounts, paint a picture of an operation that wasnÂ’t focused on expanding employment. Instead, BainÂ’s mission, like most private equity firms, was to generate gains for its investors.
Dade International
In 1994, Bain and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) acquired Dade International, a medical diagnostics firm that had been a unit of Baxter International Inc. (BAX)
Soon after, Romney told employees in a speech that Bain planned to restructure Dade and resell it for a profit, said a former employee who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared negative repercussions. Fulfilling that mission would lead to merging companies, consolidating operations and eliminating employees.
Michael Rumbin, vice president of technology at the Baxter division, said his responsibility under the new company became cutting half of the research projects. Projects were eliminated that had little possibility of success, though the reductions were a “relatively traumatic experience” for workers, he said.
Dade was combined with several other companies, got a new name, Dade Behring, and became one of the largest makers of diagnostic tests. Each acquisition was followed by job eliminations. At least 1,600 employees were dismissed from 1996 to 1999, according to SEC reports.
Plant Closures
Redundancies led to cuts and plant closures, a standard practice when companies are merged, said Scott Garrett, who was the chief executive officer at Dade from 1994 to 1997. “It’s very unfair to suggest that Mitt Romney was anything but a very good business person,” said Garrett.
Bain and Goldman cashed in on their investment in June 1999, selling back shares to Dade for $365.4 million.
Dade borrowed so much money to make that payment that when sales declined and interest rates rose the company struggled to pay its creditors. Standard & PoorÂ’s downgraded its outlook for Dade Behring to negative from stable. The company later filed for bankruptcy.
“They leveraged this thing to the hilt and got out when they could,” Rumbin said. “We were left holding the bag.”
It didnÂ’t work out as well for Rumbin. His position was eliminated.
“These guys worked there for two years and ended up as millionaires,” he said. “I worked there for 25 years and I’m not a millionaire.”
Dade emerged from bankruptcy and was acquired by Siemens AG.
DDi Corp. (DDIC)
BainÂ’s 1997 investment in DDi, a circuit board maker, also illustrates how Bain came out ahead even when a company it bought ultimately faltered.
Bain initially invested $46.3 million in the company, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. After taking DDi public, Bain sold shares generating at least $85.5 million, according to a Bloomberg News review of SEC filings.
Bain also collected management fees. A DDi prospectus filed with the SEC in February 2001 described payments of $10 million to Bain when it provided consulting and other services.
In the months after Bain sold shares, DDiÂ’s performance deteriorated, the company eliminated jobs and then filed for bankruptcy.
Shareholders protested, filing a class action lawsuit saying DDi, in advertising its initial public offering, withheld information suggesting results were about to sour. Defendants eventually settled the case for $4.4 million, according to court records.
DDi emerged from bankruptcy and continues to operate.
GS Technologies Corp.
At another Bain company, bad management and a lack of oversight from RomneyÂ’s firm contributed to losses and job cuts, according to former employees.
Bain invested in GS Technologies Corp. in 1993 and merged it with another company in 1995 to form GS Industries Inc., based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The combined company was the largest producer of steel wire rods in the U.S.
Chief Executive Officer Roger Regelbrugge, who had come from Georgetown Industries Inc., the company that merged with GS Technologies, said he met Romney at a luncheon in Boston, and may have had some subsequent conversations. The bulk of his communication with Bain was through two Bain executives who served on the GS board, he said.
When Regelbrugge stepped down as CEO in 2000, his successor, Mark Essig, replaced top staff with colleagues from a previous job who didnÂ’t know the GS business, said Regelbrugge, who remained on the board. That contributed to the companyÂ’s decline, Regelbrugge said, adding that he relayed his concerns to Bain representatives. Essig didnÂ’t respond to phone and e- mail requests for comment.
“Bain pleaded with me to give my successor a chance,” said Regelbrugge. “They showed more patience than they needed to.”
Business Deterioration
At a steel plant in Kansas City, Missouri, one new supervisor had previously sold mattresses, said Steve Morrow, 59, who worked at the plant for 32 years and represented workers there as president of United Steelworkers Local 13.
The business deterioration was made worse by declining steel prices and difficult business conditions, Regelbrugge said.
In 2001, the company shut the Kansas City plant, which it said was losing money. More than 700 workers lost their jobs. Retirees and those eligible to retire lost their health benefits and life insurance, said John Wiseman, a staff representative with the United Steelworkers.
Bankruptcy Protection
GS Industries began reorganizing under bankruptcy protection in 2001. In a bankruptcy court filing, the company blamed lower steel prices that resulted in record levels of low- priced imports into the U.S.
That explanation doesn’t satisfy Morrow, who remembers seeing his former colleagues struggle to find jobs with health benefits. Today, when he hears Romney campaign on job creation, he said, “It makes me about half sick.”
In contrast, Bain flourished under RomneyÂ’s management and the business model he installed.
The firm started with fewer than 10 employees and a $37 million fund that Romney helped to create. When Romney left in 1999 to help organize the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Bain had 115 employees managing $4 billion in assets.
Successful Business Model
Instead of just advising companies, Romney and several partners would invest in them, provide financial and management advice and then typically sell their stake five to seven years later.
“The returns were very, very good relative to others in the industry and this persisted while Romney was there,” said Steven Kaplan, a professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business who specializes in private equity. “Everybody has copied them. He was spectacularly successful.”
The company earned Romney much of his fortune, valued at between $190 million and $250 million, according to a financial disclosure report filed when he ran for president in 2007.
Romney has tempered his claims about the jobs he created at Bain over the years. In his unsuccessful 1994 Senate campaign, Romney said he helped create 10,000 jobs, which was challenged by his opponents. In his campaign for his partyÂ’s 2012 nomination, Romney has avoided such specific claims.
“Sometimes I was successful and helped create jobs, other times I was not,” Romney said in announcing his candidacy on June 2 in Stratham, New Hampshire.
To contact the reporters on this story: Justin Blum in Washington at
jblum4@bloomberg.net; Lisa Lerer in Washington at
llerer@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at
msilva34@bloomberg.net
. so you and those like you bitch that the gop ignores or 'denies blacks' not that you can point to one piece of legislation that that supposed southern strategy produced, and if you had a brain you'd explode that realignment myth yourself, by checking what states voted for who and when going back to the early 1900's.....but I have a feeling you couldn't handle the truth if it smacked you in the face anyway. to bad.
burn him at the stake....unreal, self fulfilling prophecy of aan angry guy who cannot even articulate his anger other than to take garbage like that article and smack up here like its gospel to feed your victimization and anger....
