Newt Gingrich continues to embrace the Occupy message against Mitt Romney, and it continues to pay dividends:
Non-wealth Republicans are hating on Romney. If there's class warfare going on, it looks like we have lots of Republicans on our side.
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Tue Jan 24, 2012 at 09:33 AM PST
Poll finds white working-class voters souring on Mitt Romney
But the most interesting finding is among whites with incomes of under $50,000: His negative numbers among them have jumped 20 points, from 29 percent to 49 percent.
Sargent continues:
If Romney proves unpopular among these voters, it's not impossible that Dems could win them back in the numbers they need next year. It's true that Obama's numbers among them remain worse than Romney's; his negative rating is 56 percent. But according to a recent Center for American Progress study, Obama only has to limit his losses among this demographic in order to win reelection, provided he does reasonably well with upscale, college-educated whites — and today's Post poll finds he's rising with that group.
Let's be clear that "limiting his losses" with this group does not mean Obama can sit back. But with Romney's tax returns illustrating just how far-removed his life is from working- or middle-class concerns, a Romney nomination would definitely open the door to make the clear and accurate case that Obama's policies are better for working people.
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Tue Jan 24, 2012 at 08:30 AM PST
Mitt Romney's Bain Capital 'earned' $342 million by bankrupting a company and firing 850 Floridians
The Herald's story focuses on the impacts of Bain's business practices on Florida, but it's worth going back to this The New York Times article from November. According to The Times, Bain led a group of investors who acquired the company for $450 million in 1994. Bain's share of the price tag: $30 million. Then:
By 1998, Mr. Romney and his restless colleagues at Bain began looking for a way to cash out of the firm's investment in Dade.A hefty offer arrived. Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company, a rival buyout firm, proposed buying Dade Behring for $1.9 billion, according to documents filed in the bankruptcy case. But Bain executives rejected it, disappointed by the price, the documents indicate.
Bain settled on a common tactic in private equity: In April 1999, it pushed Dade to borrow hundreds of millions of dollars to buy half of Bain's shares in the company — and half of those of its investment partners.
Bain pocketed the $242 million. Goldman received $121 million. Top Dade executives got $55 million, records show. The total payout to shareholders reached $420 million — nearly as much as the purchase price for Dade.
In addition to the $242 million, Bain took $100 million in management fees for running the company. But despite their $342 million payday, Bain led Dade directly into bankruptcy:
The strategy of sharply increasing Dade's debt alarmed several executives. Mr. Garrett, the former chief executive of Dade who stood to gain from the transaction, said he had argued unsuccessfully against it."It was too aggressive," Mr. Garrett said. "It was done right up to the limit of what the company could borrow."
With the amount of money that Dade owed to creditors and vendors at nearly $2 billion, some executives worried that the company would have little maneuvering room if its financial situation suddenly deteriorated.
Soon enough, it did. Interest rates rose, increasing Dade's debt payments. The value of the euro, then a new currency, slid, reducing Dade's European revenue. And a new distribution center had unexpected delays.
Creditors, unsettled by deteriorating finances and high debts, began to pounce. More layoffs followed. And in August of 2002, Dade filed for bankruptcy protection.
Bain ultimately relinquished its ownership claim, but it had already taken $342 million out of company, an 11-fold return on its $30 million investment in less than eight years. Fortunately, the bankruptcy didn't destroy the company, which emerged from bankruptcy and has prospered since Bain gave up its ownership stake. But even though Dade is now a successful company, its success comes despite Bain Capital—not because of it.
Obviously, the story is timely because of the upcoming Florida primary and the fact that nearly one thousand Floridians lost their jobs as Bain bankrupted the firm, but if Romney gets the nomination, it won't simply fade away. Perhaps he can convince Republicans that questioning how he managed to "earn" $342 million while bankrupting a company is the same thing as assaulting free enterprise, but he won't be able to convince Americans of that. And given that Mitt Romney cites his private sector experience as the number one reason why he should be president, that's a big problem for Mitt Romney to have.
Tue Jan 24, 2012 at 08:02 AM PST
Mitt Romney's tax rate is less than 15% despite earning $42.5 million
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney released tax records on Tuesday indicating he is paying $6.2 million in taxes on a total of $42.5 million in income over the years 2010 and 2011.Bowing to increasing political pressure to provide more detail about his vast wealth, the former private equity executive released tax returns indicating he and his wife, Ann, paid an effective tax rate of 13.9 percent in 2010. They expect to pay a 15.4 percent rate when they file their returns for 2011.
Even though Romney isn't going as far as President Obama—who has released his tax returns back through 2000—or his father, who released twelve years of returns when he ran for president, Romney's returns contain some interesting nuggets beyond his absurdly low effective tax rate:
Romney's holdings include an undisclosed amount in funds based in the Grand Cayman Islands and other overseas entities.Romney advisers stressed that the holdings in the Caymans - along with those in a Swiss bank account that was closed in 2010 after an investment adviser decided it could be politically embarrassing to Romney - were reported on tax returns and were not vehicles to avoid taxes.
They also stressed that Romney, whose holdings are in three blind trusts, makes no decisions as to how his money is invested.
Regardless, the emerging picture was of a man of great means who contributes mightily to charity. The documents showed he and his wife contributed $7 million in charity over the two years, much of it going to his Mormon church. That represents more than 15 percent of the Romneys' income for those years.
The campaign is refusing to release more than the two years that it already has, defending today's document dump as a "fulsome" release. But given that the Swiss bank account was closed to further Romney's presidential ambitions, one wonders what else might be lurking in the documents if one were to go back a number of years. As his dad said when releasing 12 years worth of returns, one year's release could simply be "done for show." What else is out there?
In a way, it's understandable if Romney feels releasing more than two years would represent an invasion of his privacy, but nobody forced him to run for president, and there's no good reason for him to be any less transparent than President Obama.
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Interesting result of actually seeing Mitt Romney in action. A new ABC/Washington Post poll has Romney's unfavorables on the rise:
The number of Americans with negative views of Mitt Romney has spiked in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, compounding the former Massachusetts governor's challenges as he tries to rally from Saturday's big loss in South Carolina.Even more interestingly, the rise in negatives is with independents, especially (+17) and with Republicans (+14), leaving Romney's fav/unfav in Gingrich territory. In fact, it's 2:1 against with indies (see graphic) at 23/51.Among independents, Romney's unfavorable rating now tops 50 percent — albeit by a single point — a first in Post-ABC polling back to 2006. Just two weeks ago, more independents had favorable than unfavorable views of Romney; now, it's 2 to 1 negative.
This is a phenomenon we noted Sunday with a comparison of these graphs, which Nate Silver (I think correctly) attributes to a tough nominating battle:
Some of it is Romney's self-portrayal as a 1%er in a year of the 99%. In fact, I'll bet you $10,000 of Romney's money that's he's not likely to be helped by his tax returns (no wages, all investment, effective rate <14%.)
But here's the bottom line: while Obama's numbers improve, the GOP nomination is between two very unpopular candidates (the media never hesitates to say it about Democrats, but it's high time we heard this fact about Republicans.)
Obama's numbers in this poll, conducted Wednesday through Sunday, have tilted positive, both among all Americans (53 percent favorable) and among independents (51 percent favorable). The president's favorability rating had, for the first time, dipped below the 50-percent mark last fall.Given the ongoing battle, neither Romney or Gingrich are going to be reversing their numbers (or the President's) any time soon.
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