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Unfortunately Santorum and most Republicans do not yet understand why Romney would really lose to Obama. This election was supposed to be about putting Obama on trial, which it would be with any of the non-Romney candidates. But with Romney, it won’t be. It will be about putting “private equity” firms like Bain Capital and Wall Street itself on trial. Romney used the Alinsky-ite tactic of accusing his opposition of the same things he was guilty of to try to misdirect people. But if Newt Gingrich has a couple suitcases worth of “baggage” as Romney claims, then Romney has enough baggage to fill the JFK International Airport.

The list of witnesses for the mainstream media to interview for this trial will be endless. 140 firms were acquired by Bain in the 15 years Romney was there, many of which went bankrupt due to Bain’s driving them into debt for the purpose of extracting fees for themselves. Many of the firms that did not go bankrupt were still badly weakened by Bain’s practices. All those laid-off employees and all of the firm managers will be rolled out to criticize how Romney managed them. One economist after another will be there to explain why the “private equity” model that was invented by Romney in the ‘80s is little more than a corporate shell game for Bain to steal free money from lenders and let the government bail them out on their losses. There will be nothing stopping the media from investigating other “private equity” acquisitions done by companies other than Bain and creating an association between Bain and the whole industry. It won’t be entirely unfair, since Romney is the one who pioneered this business model which others went on to imitate.

The Republicans will be put in the miserable position of defending the corrupt Bain business model, putting them into the position of defending Wall Street high finance, something that almost no potential voters who didn’t graduate from the Ivy Leagues admire. The uncharismatic Romney will simply come off as a sleazeball whether he tries to defend his business or apologize for it. Remember when Martin Short played that sleazy businessman on SNL in the ‘80s (the “I’m not being defensive!” guy)?* That’s exactly how Romney is going to look when he’s backed into a corner by these accusations.

A Romney nomination is a nightmare scenario for our party and for the country. It has the makings of a 49-state sweep for Obama (all except Utah). Once the Republican party is drawn into defending Romney’s rip-off artistry at Bain, they will tarnish their brand name so badly that they will be sure to lose the House as well.

*Here’s one of the Martin Short clips where he plays the sleazy businessman Nathan Thurm. This is the classic corporate stereotype Hollywood trots out and they would love to be able to associate Republicans with this type of guy even more than they’ve been able to do before. It’s funny how similar his nervous mannerisms are to Romney in some of his interviews like the Brett Baier interview. Just look at this guy and realize this is exactly what people in blue collar industrial states like my home state of Pennsylvania see when they look at guys like Romney:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wc2o8ywKqos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98MNisZJyFI

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/5999248/60_minutes/ (at 3:00)

http://www.hulu.com/watch/281899/saturday-night-live-nathan-thurm

http://www.hulu.com/watch/273989/saturday-night-live-nathan-thurm

http://www.hulu.com/watch/273992/saturday-night-live-nathan-thurm

http://www.hulu.com/watch/273978/saturday-night-live-nathan-thurm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOLBQxk72NY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-mK907DpKU