Mitt Romney and his time at Bain Capital has dominated the political discussion for the last several weeks. Yesterday, I wrote that Romney made a major mistake when he “took his foot off the gas” and allowed himself to be attacked by President Obama.
Today, David Frum echoed that sentiment on Twitter.
Arguing”this is a distraction from real issues” didnt help Bill Clinton, didn’t help Rep. Weiner, and wont help now. Put it to bed w facts
— davidfrum (@davidfrum) July 17, 2012
Frum proceeded to suggest a few facts:
“Romney did save & turn around failing companies.”
“Romney obeyed the tax laws in place at the time — the most relevant of them being laws signed by President Clinton.”
“Every one of the business practices objected to by Obama campaign will remain available if Obama re-elected.”
Mitt Romney’s chief focus in this election is the economy — and he has presented himself as the candidate with the knowledge to get the United States out of this malaise. But if he continues this pattern of weakness, he’ll allow Obama to portray him as a crooked, wealthy, out of touch white guy who relishes firing and mistreating the common man.
That would be a gross distortion of the truth (but one that we should expect from Obama), but this is politics — if you don’t attack, you will be attacked.
It’s time for Romney to use facts, tell America the entire story, and return this discussion to where it belongs — the failures of the Obama administration.