Romney has denounced the attacks as assaults on free enterprise, adding that he expected Democrats, not fellow Republicans, to assail his record at Bain. The attacks have also outraged some conservatives, who have accused Gingrich and Perry of echoing the language of Occupy Wall Street.
President Obama’s reelection team happily fanned the flames yesterday, accusing Romney of profiting while his firm closed plants, cut jobs, and slashed wages and benefits.
“ ‘Free enterprise’ isn’t running for president, Mitt Romney is,’’ Stephanie Cutter, an Obama adviser, wrote in a memo. “And voters deserve straight answers about his record.’’
With his new 30-second television ad, released in South Carolina, Romney seeks to control any damage caused by the attacks by highlighting companies that prospered under Bain Capital.
“Mitt Romney helped create and ran a company that invested in struggling businesses, grew new ones, and rebuilt old ones, creating thousands of jobs,’’ the announcer says as the names Staples, Sports Authority, and Steel Dynamics flash across the screen. “Those are the facts.’’
“We expected the Obama administration to put free markets on trial, but as the Wall Street Journal said, ‘Mr. Romney’s GOP opponents are embarrassing themselves by taking the Obama line.’ ’’
Moving also to defend himself on issues important to South Carolina’s evangelical voters, Romney released a 30-second radio ad that responds to Gingrich’s accusations that Romney was a “proabortion’’ governor of Massachusetts.
The radio ad quotes Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina, a conservative Tea Party leader, saying in 2007 that Romney “feels passionately that the value of human life begins at conception.’’
“Today, Christian conservatives are supporting Mitt Romney because he shares their values: the sanctity of life, the sacredness of marriage, and the importance of the family,’’ the announcer states.
