The October 2012 Ad Against Governor Perry in the General Election

The October 2012 Ad Against Governor Romney – Should He Win the Republican Nomination

Governor Romney has run a disciplined, focused campaign. Stay apart from the circular firing squad of the other Republican candidates. Stay alive in Iowa, win New Hampshire, survive South Carolina, and let his well organized, well financed campaign survive the primaries as his opponents fall one by one by the wayside. Polls show he has the best chance against president Obama in November.

And yet, the businessman has fallen behind Congressman Newt Gingrich, a career politician, when the public consistently shows disdain for politician. The non-politician politician should be cleaning up, not watching the possible nomination slip – sliding away.

He made a mistake in the recent Republican debate. The Governor misspoke when he offered to bet Governor Rick Perry $10,000. Born rich, the product of America’s elite boarding schools and colleges, he appeared out of touch with the American people. The patrician FDR never would have made this mistake. The predictable ads have appeared.

But these are but a foreshadow of the October Ad.

The Ad does not bring up the $10,000 bet. Nor will it morph RomenyCare into ObamaCare to discourage Republicans and Independents from voting for the Governor. No, it directly attacks his job-creating business background.

The non-politician governor would have been a career politician if he had won the 1994 Senatorial contest in Massachusetts against the incumbent, Senator Ted Kennedy. The young, dynamic business executive was a refreshing change from the Senator. The Massachusetts public was receptive to dumping the Senator. A founder of Staples, the creator of jobs was gaining momentum.

Then came the Ad.

Mitt Romney was a founder of Bain Capital, which invested in other companies, often reorganizing them, then flipping them for a profit. One example is the acquisition of Dade International, a medical company, which Bain turned around, and then cashed out for $242 million. Dade later went bankrupt.

The one at issue in the Ad was Ampad. Bain acquired it in 1992 for $5 million. It then merged competitors into Ampad, cutting costs by downsizing the workforce. Reorganization of a struggling company entails cutting plants and facilities, product lines, and laying off employees, including entire factories. The alternative to a reorganization could be liquidation.

One of the laid off employees was featured in the ad, explaining how he and his co-workers struggled after losing their jobs while Bain made millions. The violins are playing for the unemployed. In short, Romney prospered by firing productive workers. As one terminated employee said “If he’s created jobs, I wish he could create some here, you know, instead of taking them away.”

Brutally effective ad! The candidate had no response. End of campaign. Kennedy 58%, Romney 41%. The Ampad ad had the same effect on Mitt Romney’s campaign as the Willie Horton ad against Governor Dukakis.

That’s the ad that will run in October, timed for the maximum effect on the November election.

Bain Capital apparently made $100 million off of Ampad, which entered bankruptcy in 2000.

The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Los Angeles Times have all in the past two weeks discussed the record of Bain Capital. Newt Gingrich referred to it on Monday in appearance in New Hampshire.

The ex-Governor demanded the ex-Speaker give back the $1.8 million in consulting fees he received from Freddie Mac. Congressman Gingrich responded the Governor “should give back all the money he earned from bankrupting companies and laying off employees over his years at Bain.”

The Massachusetts voters may be familiar with the Ad, but it will be a novelty to the American voter.