Politics

CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Romney in 2007: ‘He is like the best businessman in North America’

Jeff Poor Media Reporter
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CNBC “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer was pretty excited about the prospects of a Mitt Romney presidency back in 2007.

Ever since his less-than-stellar appearance on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” in 2009, Cramer has been reluctant to be as outspoken about his political beliefs as he was in the initial stages of the President Barack Obama’s first term. But while he hasn’t talked a lot about his thoughts on this year’s presidential election, Cramer did lay out the case for Romney during an appearance on MSNBC’s “Hardball” on June 1, 2007.

“Can I just tell you something right now — I interviewed with Romney,” Cramer said. “He tried to hire me in 1984. Why do people now say well, ‘I don’t want to have a Mormon as president?’ I never even thought of him as a Mormon. He is like the best businessman in North America. And that is how you should think of him.”

“I think that Hillary’s — look, Bill Clinton was pretty good on taxation, so I don’t think hers would be that bad,” Cramer said. “It is just that Romney would be a guy who would say, ‘our gross domestic product just was less than 1 percent last quarter? That’s outrageous. We are going to be a growth nation again.'”

“What ever happened to something like that out of Washington?” Cramer added. “I don`t hear anybody talking about growth. Romney is a guy who favors growth.”

Cramer said the problem was that not enough American companies were working overseas, which he said Romney could help with.

“Yes, because he knows that our domestic companies have no growth,” he said. “This world is divided right now. Our country is divided between the companies that export, and they are doing double-digit growth, and the companies that are solely based in America, and they are dying. They are dying. Romney will help those companies.”

“At least Romney understands business,” he said. “He understands taxes. He understands capital creation. He reminds me very much of what I thought Bob Rubin was like when Bob Rubin was Treasury Secretary.”

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