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In a blistering new ad, the Republican National Committee catches the Obama Campaign lying to the press about their influence in strong-arming Newark Mayor Cory Booker into taking back his criticism of President Obama's attack on Bain Capital.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D) defended Bain in an interview with CNN Tuesday, saying, “I respect what Bain does and its role in the free market system.” KING: [Clyburn] said Bain Capital rapes companies. He says he can’t support companies that go around “raping companies.” PATRICK: Look, the question is whether Mitt Romney has what it takes—the preparation and the experience and the empathy—to serve as president of the United States. It’s not about whether Bain is good or bad. I have friends at Bain; I have friends who supported the other candidate in my own campaigns. I respect what...

This morning on MSNBC, former venture capitalist Sen. Mark Warner D-Va. admitted that Bain Capital was "very successful" and "did what they were supposed to do." When asked about whether attacks on private equity were fair, Warner said that he was "proud" of his previous career in the private sector but noted that public service required a "different skill set." "Bain Capital was a very successful business. They got a good return for their investors. That is what they were supposed to do," Warner said. Warner, is the founder of Columbia Capital Corp. in Alexandria, Va. which made him a...

Will the strategy of highlighting Mitt Romney’s track record at Bain Capital do more to damage the Republican nominee, or Barack Obama? A poll released yesterday by Rasmussen suggests that it might do more damage to Obama’s re-election efforts than it will to his challenger. Only 33% of a sample of 1,000 likely voters say that Romney’s record at Bain was a reason to vote against him, while 44% believe it boosts his candidacy: Democrats have begun criticizing Mitt Romney’s business record, but a plurality of voters view the Republican’s business past as a positive. A new Rasmussen Reports national...

Newark Mayor Cory Booker, a Democrat who landed in hot water with his party on Sunday after criticizing President Obama’s attacks on Mitt Romney’s time at Bain Capital, may have found an unexpected ally in left-wing activist Van Jones. “An urban mayor who nearly DIED saving neighbor from a fire, has earned right 2 demand integrity & courage from other leaders,” Jones tweeted on Tuesday in a message addressed to Booker’s Twitter handle. Booker, who indeed did save a neighbor from a burning building earlier this year, has been on the receiving end of much criticism from Democrats and liberal...

Anderson Cooper interviewed Obama super-PAC chief Ben LaBolt on the new Bain Capital attack strategy, and the only enlightenment that results from the exchange is an understanding of why LaBolt no longer works in the White House media room. LaBolt refused to even acknowledge Cooper’s repeated questions of how Barack Obama and his team can justify attacks on Mitt Romney’s work at Bain while holding fundraisers with Blackstone and other private-equity firms that do the exact same work as Bain. Instead, LaBolt just keeps repeated campaign talking points ad infinitum, making it clear he and the campaign have no idea...

Rep. James Clyburn (D., S.C.) described Mitt Romney and Bain Capital’s record as one of “raping companies” in a Tuesday interview with MSNBC. ANCHOR: But, congressman, what about the counterargument to that? What about the counterargument that these attacks on Bain Capital — many see them as an attack on free enterprise as well. CLYBURN: This is not an attack on free enterprise. I would say to you, [unclear] free enterprise–I don’t take contributions from payday lenders. I refuse to do that. That’s free enterprise. but there’s something about that enterprise that I have a problem with. And there’s something...

Ed Rendell joins Harold Ford and Cory Booker as critics within Barack Obama’s own party of his electoral strategy of demonizing private equity. In a BuzzFeed article that focuses on the larger disconnect between Obama and Democratic Party institutions, Zeke Miller gets the former Democratic governor of Pennsylvania — a state critical to Obama’s re-election hopes — on the record as decidedly uncomfortable with the tone of Team Obama’s attacks on Bain Capital: Rendell joined the chorus of criticism of Obama’s attacks on finance, whose leaders have written checks to many members of both parties. “I think they’re very disappointing,”...

Bain Capital has been used as a political weapon against Mitt Romney since 1994, but now his opponents might be rethinking ads about attacking him for his time at the private-equity firm as the ads are being criticized by some Democrats as well as Republicans. President Obama planned to set the political tone for the week with a new ad about an Indiana company that was bought by Bain and then shuttered, as the firm made millions of dollars and workers lost jobs. The biggest problem with the online video: Even Democrats say it attacks the business of private equity...

Obama raised most from private equity, hedge funds in 2008 By Jonathan Easley - 05/22/12 09:52 AM ET President Obama raised far more cash from hedge fund and private equity donors than any other candidate in the 2008 election cycle. According to an analysis by the nonprofit group Open Secrets, Obama took in nearly $3.5 million from large private-equity donors that year — nearly twice what his general-election rival, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), pocketed. The data bring into focus the thin line Obama must walk in attacking presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s background in the industry, which has sparked...

One almost has to feel sorry for Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt.  He showed up on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 yesterday probably expecting the type of softball questions that MSNBC hosts would toss at him. Instead, Anderson Cooper took a page from Cory Booker's criticism of  "nauseating" attacks on private equity firms such as Bain Capital and kept asking LaBolt how the Obama campaign can criticize Bain while simultaneously raising funds from the same type of companies. The clearly unprepared LaBolt spent the interview filibustering with a flurry of words that were designed not to answer the questions about the...

Campaign 2012: Newark's mayor succumbs to administration thought control after going off-script and praising the private-equity firm that succeeded in creating net jobs, unlike presidential investment Solyndra. The White House must have had a bad case of the vapors when Newark Mayor Cory Booker, viewed in some quarters as a practical, non-ideological problem-solver, praised the record of Mitt Romney's former private firm Bain Capital, before a national audience on NBC's "Meet The Press," and eschewed attacks of a type he found "nauseating." "I have to just say from a very personal level, I'm not about to sit here and indict...

China's Dalian Wanda Group and AMC Entertainment announced Monday a $2.6 billion deal to take over the U.S. theater group, forming the world's largest cinema chain, according to a new release on the deal. The move is the latest in a raft of deals between U.S. entertainment companies and Chinese firms, linking the world's largest theater market with the world's fastest growing. "This acquisition will help make Wanda a truly global cinema owner, with theatres and technology that enhance the movie-going experience for audiences in the world's two largest movie markets," said Wang Jianlin, chairman and president of Wanda.

This week the Obama campaign debuted its attack on Bain Capital, the private-equity firm Mitt Romney founded. Its two-minute ad purports to tell the story of GS Technologies, a Kansas City-based Bain investment that went bankrupt in 2001. To hear the Obama campaign, this is a tale of greed: GST was a healthy, happy, quality steelmaker until Bain plundered its worth and stripped its 750 workers of their due. "It was like a vampire," laments one former employee in the ad. "They came in and sucked the life out of us." GST is a tragic tale, though in a different...

No sooner had President Obama released a "Bain Capital Video" which highlights the hatcheting job Mitt Romney did to poor performing companies, that he attended a high roller fundraiser at Black Stone Investment which awarded the President with a cool million bucks at the $36,000 a plate dinner. Note: Black Stone Capital has been responsible for firing untold thousands of workers through various "investment" programs. Here is a record of 800+ who were placed on the chopping block via Black Stone: IN THE TRENCHES How a Blackstone Deal Shook Up a Work Force Layoffs at Travelport, Dividend for Investors; 'On...

Mitt Romney went into the wrong line of work. If only he had been a lecturer in constitutional law, he wouldn’t have a business record vulnerable to distortion by a desperate incumbent president. Barack Obama’s hands, in contrast, are clean. He taught at the University of Chicago Law School and didn’t make the mistake of attempting to start, acquire, or turn around companies. He has no business failures because he has no business successes — if you don’t count selling books about himself to the adoring multitudes. The president’s reelection campaign is out with a scorching advertisement hitting Romney for...

The Obama campaign is out with a new two-minute attack ad, hitting Mitt Romney on his past at Bain Capital. The ad, set to run in Pennsylvania, Iowa, Ohio, Virginia and Colorado, plays up the “vulture capitalism” angle. “It was like a vampire,” says a former GS Steel worker named Joe Cobb. “They came in and sucked the life out of us.” The Romney campaign is expected to push back aggressively on what they view as a major distraction from the president’s disastrous economic record. It shouldn’t be terribly hard. The bankruptcy and layoffs occurred in 2001, two years after...

Mitt Romney has taken quite a hit for his time at Bain Capital. Advertisements were run and movies were made (check out the trailer for King of Bain, if you have not already) depicting Romney as a job-killer. They portray him as a ruthless, greedy, and absolutely ravenous capitalist. This view is rooted in a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of private equity, leveraged buyouts, and their role in a developed economy. When understood correctly, it is clear that Romney’s time at Bain was actually quite beneficial to the economy. Private equity keeps the economy flowing, and there is no...

Mitt Romney’s release of his tax returns has pushed the arcane issue of “carried interest” — the share of an investment fund’s profits given to its managers as payment for their services – back into the headlines. Critics have renewed their calls to tax the carried interest as ordinary income. Unfortunately, the populist rhetoric used by some critics can obscure the facts about how carried interest is actually taxed.

Activists are expressing serious concerns that Mitt Romney’s private equity firm Bain Capital owns one of America’s largest media conglomerates, Clear Channel Communications, Inc., which broadcasts numerous popular talk-show hosts with incalculable influence in the 2012 GOP primary. Among the radio personalities syndicated by Clear Channel or aired on hundreds of stations it owns nationwide are Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Glenn Beck, Michael Savage, and many others. Because of the San Antonio-based media giant’s enormous influence — it is the largest owner of radio stations in the United States, and experts point out that it essentially owns what...