Bain's gain and pain: why Mitt has to take the hit for all of it, the good, bad and the ugly

The campaign noise on both sides is clamoring to a crescendo and the theatrics are fascinating. The presumptive presidential nominee for the GOP, Mitt Romney is even calling fon President Barack Obama to issue him an apology for what he calls "misrepresenting the facts" about his Bain Capital record-- a nice way of saying the commander-in-chief lied.

The president and his camp have shot back that no apology will be forthcoming. In fact, they have upped the ammo, with hit after hit. The latest ad played on a loop stars Romney singing off-key while video of his record of outsourcing jobs and his stashed off-shore money rolls in the background.

Now new cries of "too dirty a campaign" are used as defensive criticism or offensive, depending on which side is aiming at the moment.

Dirty campaign? Why, what a shocker. Such deep descent from the American political system which before was a tall bastion of integrity.

Let's get real for a minute and leave the fiction aside. This is what happens every election cycle and the Republicans are the brilliant spin doctors of "dirty." Remember Rev. Wright, Palin's "palling around with terrorists" accusations, and the ones that wouldn't go away -- Obama isn't a natural-born American, he's a Muslim, he's a a socialist. He's so "un -American" that John Sununu, Romney's national campaign co-chair and former governor of New Hampshire, recently said the president "needs to learn how to be American." More of the running theme of some Republicans to de-legitimize the Obama presidency.

"Show me the birth-certificate" continues to be the battle cry of many in the GOP and Romney's new BFF, Donald Trump is an avid subscriber to the cause, even leading the charge at times, adding "show me your academic qualifying papers" to the mix. Some, like the Donald, don't believe he is a Harvard grad either.

How you like it now, Mitt? Let's just say your tax returns are comparable to Obama's birth certificate. The Dems learned from the best, your party. Most high-ranking Republicans were slow in reigning in the birther movement and some only begrudgingly mumbled they believed the president is American after the release of the long-form version of the birth certificate. In Maricopa County, Ariz, Sheriff Joe Arpaio's and his dogged team of expert detectives continue to say the certificate is a fake.

They are crying foul now because the fumbling, bumbling Democratic team has grown a pair and toughened up this time around. They are learning to throw the dirt quickly, viciously and efficiently in the face of their opponent before the elephant has time to duck, using its trunk to cover its eyes with those big floppy ears.

The donkey is kicking up a fascinating dust storm and the boo-hooing from the GOP is hilarious. Romney insists that going after his Bain Capital record is disingenuous and calling him a shifty "slim shady," where all is not as he claims, is downright unethical of the Obama team. Well, the Obama team didn't use those words, "Slim Shady," I did. But you get the gist of it.

I think Romney is forgetting that he was the one who left that duplicitous trail from Bain to the SEC to the Olympics and back. He was the one who filed with the Securities Exchange Commission when he was supposed to have retired from Bain. He seems to have conveniently forgotten that he was paid $100,000 for being "retroactively retired" from the company.

One of his spin doctors said that Romney retired "retroactively." They are good but they are not that good. I have heard many smooth-talking points before, but retiring retroactively tops the BS of all "bull."

Then there is the outsourcing of jobs and personal monies. Though records show that legally he filed as the sole CEO of Bain after 1999, again he claims he had long washed his hands of that lot and was not responsible for all those jobs shipped overseas. (wink, wink).

On to the outsourcing of his money to the frosty Swiss banks and the tropical paradise of the Cayman islands and other sister isles, there are more excuses. For example, he has said that he is not responsible for where his multi-millions were sent to vacation and enjoy balmy tax loopholes because his "blind trust" took care of all the pertinent details. Romney, who says his business acumen and experience qualifies him to better handle the economy than Obama, wants us to now believe that he was simply a naive investor who did not undertsand heads or tails of how these complex financial "thingies" worked.

Make your mind up, Mitt. You are either an unfortunate novice in money matters, which therefore renders you unqualified for the position of president, or you are full of flaming hot air--the really, really toxic kind--which incidentally also means you're bad for the business of the Oval Office.

Fortunately for us and problematic for the Bain capitalist, there's video footage of him saying some rather interesting things about "blind trusts." On October 18, 1994, Mr. "Slim Shady" Romney said these words convincingly into a microphone and camera, "Blind trusts (are) just a ruse--you can always give a blind trust instructions." This with a snicker and a slight chuckle. Ooops.

So just who is being disingenuous? Paying 15 percent on $43 million is a prime example of that government help of "entitlement" his kind likes to rail against for the rest of us. A $77,000 tax write-off to send his horse to "the prom," as funnyman Jon Stewart put it, is also a sweet perk thanks to Uncle Sam.

Romney and his camp are trying to push the "rich envy on the left" defense, but that one won't stand up either. No one is blaming him for being rich. Obama isn't exactly poor by anyone's standards and there are numerous fat cats on the Democrats side.

Here is a quote from Stewart which sums up our problen with Mitt and folks like him: "Nobody cares that Mitt is rich. It's Romney's inability to understand the institutional advantage that he gains from the government tax code largesse that is a little offensive to people, especially considering Romney's views on anyone who looks to the government for--I don't know--things like food and medicine."

Therein lies the crux of the matter, which is stunning in its hypocrisy. This leads me to believe that people like Romney think they are entitled to a bigger slice of the pie. Entitled to all those "entitlements" they enjoy as the nation's mythical "job creators." Those cushy tax breaks, bountiful tax shelters and havens; bailed-out billions (or is it trillions?) of taxpayer dollars for bankers and his Wall Street friends.

Holding on to his tax returns even if a slew of his own on the Republican side have now taken up the call for him to release them is another example of Romney feeling "above the ordinary laws, customs and rules" that the rest of us mere mortals abide by.

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