Obama Ally Booker Now Featured Prominently In Romney Attack Ad
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Newark Mayor Cory Booker found himself in the middle of the fight over what's fair when it comes to a presidential candidate's business record, and he said he is very upset about it, CBS 2's Don Dahler reported Tuesday.
President Barack Obama says his campaign ad attacking Mitt Romney for his time in the business world is a valid criticism.
"Bain Capital made a lot of money off this plant," the ad says.
Romney helped start Bain Capital, a firm that bought and restructured struggling companies. Bain made business like Domino's Pizza profitable and shut others down, like the Missouri steel company in the president's campaign ad.
"We view Mitt Romney as a job destroyer," the ad states.
The Romney camp called the Bain ad an attack on free enterprise and they've gotten help from some of the president's supporters. Booker's recent criticism is now a Romney ad.
"It's nauseating the American public. Enough is enough," Booker says in the Romney ad.
Mayor Booker has since backed away from his objection to the Bain ad. Political observers suspect the administration pressured him to see the error of his ways.
"This is a fight to define Mitt Romney, and it's a fight to define the election," CBS News political director John Dickerson said.
The president says being successful in business is not the same thing as running a country.
"When you're president, as opposed to the head of a private equity firm, and your job is not simply to maximize profits, your job is to figure out how everybody in the country has a fair shot," Obama said.
The Romney camp says his work at Bain is fair game, but only if the company's successes are also considered, not just the failures.
"I'm very proud of the fact that working in the private sector we were able to build, in many cases, very successful enterprises, and continue to grow and keep on adding jobs," Romney said.
Romney was in New York City on Tuesday night raising money for his campaign. The former Massachusetts governor is 152 delegates shy of the 1,144 needed to secure the GOP nomination. He could get the remainder next week, when Texas voters go to the polls.
Do you think Booker was correct to criticize the president's ad? Or do you think he betrayed him? Please offer your thoughts in the comments section below ...
