AP photo
While Newt Gingrich is receiving much of the blowback from conservatives who say he has gone way overboard in criticizing Romney’s actions as CEO of Bain Capital, Rick Perry is trying his best to keep up with the message that capitalists are sometimes greedy corporate raiders.
Politico reported this quote from Perry at a South Carolina town hall meeting yesterday, when the subject turned to private equity firms that buy and sell companies:
“I will suggest they’re just vultures,” he said of firms that “loot” other companies. “They’re vultures that are sitting out there on the tree limb, waiting for a company to get sick. And then they swoop in, they eat the carcass, they leave with that, and they leave the skeleton.”
At the same time, here is the latest from Newt, who is starting to sound like an Occupy Wall Street fan:
“What you have to raise questions about is if somebody goes out and invests a certain amount of money, say $30 million, and takes in about $180 million — a six-to-one return — and then the company goes bankrupt.

“I have to ask the question: Is capitalism really about the ability of a handful of rich people to manipulate the lives of thousands of other people and walk off with the money, or is that somehow a little bit of a flawed system?” Gingrich said.

Gingrich added that the type of free enterprise practiced by Bain Capital is far different from an entrepreneur who grows a business and creates jobs.

“I do draw a distinction between looting a company, leaving behind broken families and broken neighborhoods and leaving behind a (closed) factory that should be there.”

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Over at the National Review, the editors are perplexed, if not disgusted, by the latest anti-capitalism messages floated on the GOP campaign trail. They pull no punches in today’s online editorial on the topic, asserting that firms like Bain Capital are key players in the “creative destruction” of capitalism.

Here’s a taste:
“As you can imagine, companies that are buyout targets often are in very poor shape, and reviving them is no small thing. Many of them go into bankruptcy. Product lines are discontinued, retail locations are closed, assets are sold off, and, almost inevitably, jobs are lost. Some never recover. When the restructuring is successful, reinvigorated firms expand, add locations, develop new products, and create jobs. That is the creative destruction of capitalism. Staples has 2,000 stores instead of one store because of a Bain investment. And, as Herman Cain is well-positioned to appreciate, Burger King was severely underperforming when Bain and a group of franchise owners acquired it from corporate parent Diageo in 2002. The restructured burger chain, which went public a few years back, is now valued at more than $3 billion. Household names from Dunkin’ Donuts to Guitar Center have been among Bain’s projects.
“Bain’s business is high-risk and high-reward. Romney made a pot of money — by investing in real businesses, which, it bears noting, employ many thousands of real Americans. Governor Perry likes to brag about the jobs created in Texas during his tenure: Perhaps he should subtract from that admirable sum those positions at companies in which Bain invested, for the sake of his intellectual integrity.
“Wall Street has its share of miscreants, and they should be recognized as such when appropriate. But to abominate Mitt Romney for having been a success at the business of investing in struggling American companies, connecting entrepreneurs with capital and producers with markets, is foolish and destructive. Republicans ought to know better, and the fact that Gingrich et al. apparently do not is the most disturbing commentary on the state of the primary field so far.

To read more, click here.

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