Democrats Unleash Bain Assault On Mitt Romney — With The Help Of Newt Gingrich | TPM2012

http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/01/democrats-unleash-the-bain-kraken-on-mitt-romney.php?m=1

“Mitt Romney as he runs for President has decided to make job creation a big piece of it,” Johnson tells me. “And if he’s going to make a big piece of it he has to be accountable for what he’s done.

He recounts his now familiar story: in 1992, Bain took over a company, Ampad, which in turn bought the Marion factory where Johnson worked. Under new management, he and his fellow workers returned from their July 4 holiday to find they had been fired en masse and had to reapply for their old jobs. Those who came back were greeted with lower wages and stingier health and pension benefits. As conditions worsened, workers rebelled against their treatment and went on strike. Johnson took their story public and Democrats used it to go after Romney in his 1994 Senate run.

Johnson’s efforts may have helped stop Romney from defeating Ted Kennedy that year, but things only got worse after the campaign ended. Within months, the company shut down the factory entirely, leaving all of its employees out of a job, and Ampad eventually went bankrupt in 2000. But despite its disastrous arc, Bain made huge profits off the company — as much as $100 million — thanks to revenue from management fees and selling off shares of its stock, which they took public in 1996.

So this is going to be Romney’s brandning problem:  He is on tape saying that corporations are people, he likes firing people, and has (at least) $10G in his off-the-cuff gambling fund.

Were the nation filled to the brim with day traders, he’d be a shoe in. As the nation is still trying to recover from the excesses and massive failures on Wall Street…this is going to be a tough sell.

To be sure, Romney is the consummate salesman and never misses an opportunity to pander, but closing this sale might be a bit beyond even his abilities.