Romney Raves To Have One's Cake and Eat It

"To want a horse that both runs fast and consumes no feed"
                                                            Old Chinese Proverb

 Allow me to introduce a basic economic concept that the Chinese proverb and the title suggest, and that is opportunity cost. The relevance here are those costs not necessarily monetary or financial, but the real cost of output forgone, lost time, or other efforts that Romney may have otherwise spent back at Bain whilst laboring at the games in question. I'm no economics expert, but the comparison is quite illustrating as to perhaps why he made the moves to reenter politics that he did.

 Romney, being a political animal, was considering a run at a governorship where ever he could, and Utah and Massachusetts both looked good, apparently. I can not confess to know what was in his mind, even from his writings, which only further serve to muddy the waters, however intentional or not. But just as opportunity presented itself in the Olympic committee bribery scandal, so it did when the Republican machine edged out the acting governor, although he had to refile Massachusetts taxes after Democrats complained about his state of Utah returns.

http://books.google.com/books?id=0HAlSEqFL_gC&pg=PA15&lpg=PA15&dq=%22But+Bain+Capital+was+my+baby+and+I+was+back+in+town%22&source=bl&ots=eqPqxxVHI5&sig=jiSMOeuSKxbHf0f9bzEa4ojnGMA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=6ZcDUIKeGKLF6wG5rMWEBw&ved=0CDkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22But%20Bain%20Capital%20was%20my%20baby%20and%20I%20was%20back%20in%20town%22&f=false

 Now in the 2012 race Romney has first made the claim of qualifying as deserving of the Teapublican deity title of job creator and creating 100k jobs in his lucrative career in private industry. " In the business I had, we invested in over 100 different businesses and net-net, taking out the ones where we lost jobs and those that we added, those businesses have now added over 100,000 jobs." 
— Mitt Romney, Jan. 7, 2012


 Romney had now chosen to confusticate his twin roles as venture capitalist and corporate raider even further during the already clownish Republican primary campaign. Claiming 100k job creation from his business record is a non sequitur. His campaign claimed these jobs were the total of jobs added at three firms, Staples, The Sports Authority, and Domino's Pizza. However, none of these are true, for he wasn't managing Staples, only making an initial minority investment, The Sports Authority was actually a K-Mart spin-off, and he claims to have left at the same time Bain was aquiring Domino's. All three of these claims have since been debunked.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/mitt-romney-and-100000-jobs-an-untenable-figure/2012/01/09/gIQAIoihmP_blog.html

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/05/06/1089253/-Romney-Lies-He-Did-Not-Start-Staples

http://factcheck.org/2012/01/romneys-shaky-job-claims/index.html 

http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/01/mitt-romney-takes-dubious-100k-jobs-claim-to-prime-time.php

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/romneys-bain-figures-dont-add-up/2011/08/25/gIQAjKhelP_blog.html

http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/01/who-is-mitt-romney.html

http://articles.latimes.com/1998/sep/26/business/fi-26500

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/19/mitt-romney-stocks-sensata_n_1687777.html


 Starting to see the pattern ? Now, Romney couldn't decide whether or not from 1999 to 2002 if he was the true owner and CEO, CEO being only one of the four top executive titles he held, or not, and  he still claims credit for contributing to companies like Staples, because he still sat on the board of directors due to the fact that he headed Bain. Will the real executive please stand up ? I don't bemoan his hard work at the 2002 Winter Olympics, and I had two relatives performing there at the time, but the current smoke and mirrors show is a little too much to digest. It just doesn't sit well, as I'm certain it doesn't for many other Americans today either.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/the-two-faces-of-mitt-romney-and-bain-capital/2012/01/10/gIQArYmRoP_blog.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/12/mitt-romney-bain-departure_n_1669006.html

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2012/07/no_romney_didnt_leave_bain_in_1999.php

http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2012/07/13/did_the_romney_campaign_create_the_swift_yachting_story_.html

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2012/07/14/evidence_mounts_of_mitt_romneys_continuing_ties_to_bain_after_1999/?page=full

 A little corporate huddling and a few planning meetings must have given Romney a heads up as to what was on the horizon for his opportunist political plans and what was, or was not going to be predictive of politically expedient and responsible corporate behavior for his company. I mean it was still his company, lock, stock, and barrel, and prior to his leaving for Salt Lake City and during his "absence" these factors must have shaped both his decision to step away, and then return to now what he is calling "retroactively" retire (who ever heard of such a thing ?). He was not performing divestiture en todo, simply placing a comfortable distance between his management of the company(s) involved in the outsourcing of US jobs, and reaping the profits for some time to come. Quite a balancing act, and he almost got away with it, but ah the paper trail. Something he could not control as readily and antiseptically as he did with his governorship records in their entirety, completing wiping them clean, even all the state hard drives.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/06/us-usa-campaign-romney-computers-idUSTRE7B500X20111206

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/romneys-bain-capital-invested-in-companies-that-moved-jobs-overseas/2012/06/21/gJQAsD9ptV_story.html?wp_login_redirect=0

 http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/07/bain-capital-mitt-romney-outsourcing-china-global-tech

  I had to turn off "Morning Joe" this morning because I was so tired of hearing that one note Solyndra samba being beaten to the bar by a another former Bushie neocon associate sent as a surrogate Romney mouthpiece, and it also appears that their campaign set up the usual smokescreen defense, which has been already diluted by hosing down their ridiculous claims, thank goodness.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/11/us/politics/obama-and-romney-trade-shots-a-few-possibly-accurate-on-outsourcing.html?pagewanted=1&_r=3

 I, and I'm sure many Americans, perhaps a majority are becoming numb to the mantra of the repetitive talking points of the Teapublican driven campaign, and am really hopeful that we can come out of this election season with another term for President Obama to get some more vitally needed work done with more Democratic control of the congress. It appears now that our future may depend upon this direction of the pendulum to swing as progressive as the American people have their true opinion.