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So what metrics should we choose to judge Bain’s use of it?

I think net jobs is fair / reasonable. Also ROI seems reasonable. I’m not wowed by an anecdotal evidence to tug on the heartstrings without any context.

Right, I'm not caring about bleeding heart anecdotes either. Though assessing the success of an operation like Bain Capital is difficult to meaningfully quantify. Because so much of the eventual success/failure of the firms they were involved with, would be dependent on factors presumably beyond Bain's control—such as having good executives in charge, etc. Also we'd have to figure out what sort of timelines to range the question in—are we looking at how a given firm did 5, 10, or more years down the line? So on, so forth.

Which also figures into why I think it's better to scrutinize Romney's "private sector experience" from the POV of: How much real-world field experience does he have running a competitive firm in a dynamic marketplace, where he's having to produce something tangible, deal with hiring/firing workers, etc?

I realize financial instruments are products too, of course, but is this the sort of bona fide private sector experience, where someone can honestly say they have an immersive, pragmatic, working knowledge of how the real economy operates? I'm skeptical that someone accustomed to dealing in the more abstract layers of finance, would have a reliable grasp on these matters.

I can appreciate the distinction but don’t subscribe to it. I’ve been told that my profession (IT/internet) is not real because it’s 0’s and 1’s. Finance is a data oriented product at this point (debt instruments, derivatives) and I guess I don’t find it any less real than a widget. To each their own.

But if that is your standard and a 0 is no business experience (say community organizer) and a 10 would be someone like Henry Ford - then a) where does Mitt fall on the scale? and b) where are the rest of the candidates? IMO, I think only Huntsman has had a real job now that Cain is out.