Opinion: Bain Holds American Headlines Captive Without Reason
With all that is and should be important to Americans – just over a hundred days before we select our president – it is baffling as to why the media is so hell-bent on holding on to the Bain Capital story involving presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
While the “left” claims that we need to know all about this guy who wants to occupy the White House, the same people are extremely tolerant – too tolerant – of not knowing everything that many want to know about President Barack Obama.
We’ve heard it all before. Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital days involved foreigners and foreign money, and the “left” is trying to find something illegal regarding that part of the Romney story. They can’t, and so they stir up controversy anyway. Romney doesn’t want to show his tax records dating back ten years. By law, he doesn’t have to – yet, the “left” stirs up skepticism and controversy anyway.
The “right” isn’t without fault for stalling on certain topics either. For example, Barack Obama’s hidden academic transcripts and other Obama-related information which are not available to the public are cause for the “right” to cry foul. The route to go there, of course, is to make the release of such information required by law in future presidential elections. For Obama’s elections of 2008 and 2012, it’s unfortunately too late to legally do anything about his unreleased data. We can speculate what secrets are lurking in there – but there is nothing that can legally be done at this time to make the documents public.
The latest headlines yesterday denounced Mitt Romney – again – regarding his Bain Capital financing of the past. Going back to the inception of the company which Romney began with Bill Bain in 1984, the scrutiny has focused to the initial investors who made the launching of Romney’s and Bain’s company possible. The headlines shout that Romney’s investors were from foreign lands. But little is said as to why foreign money was involved. Had Bain and Romney not involved foreign financial assistance, they most likely wouldn’t have had an American company – a very successful American company at that.
As the story goes, Bain and Romney were having trouble getting enough American financial assistance to make a go of it. Rather than drop the idea – their American dream – of having their business, they sought other avenues to finance part of their business. With the other avenues, they obtained the other one-third of the finances they needed to proceed.
Starting a business does not require that a person only look inside the United States for financing. Finding money outside the United States does not and should not imply illegalities in the formation of the business. Yet, the “left” continues stirring a controversy that apparently isn’t there. If there was anything illegal about what Romney and Bain had done, it would have been found and exposed by now.
After all, the latest allegation of mischievous doings dates back 28 years. Wrongdoing is not there – and the clock ticks as we get closer and closer to 2012’s Election Day. The “left” is fooling the media and the nation into wasting time which – by now – should be shoulder-deep in asking questions about what Romney and Obama plan to do with this troubled nation for the next four years.
Instead of concentrating on the present, the “left” and Obama keep the media focused on the deep past. Yes, Romney’s company was started up with one-third of the start-up cash coming from El Salvador, the U.K., Ecuador, the British Virgin Islands, and Panama. Nothing has been found illegal about that. The investors were cleared at the time and remain cleared today. Had Romney and Bain not used foreign money to get their company started, it’s just another successful company America would not have had through the years.
Obama and the “left” continue to try to find wrong with success and wealth in this 2012 election. When they can’t find illegality, they hammer away with the negativity. Not only have such antics been proven to promote unneeded and harmful class warfare within, but it speaks volumes of negativity to any American who dare wants to become a successful and wealthy businessperson in this country.
America used to be the land where a person could achieve his goals – no matter where the person came from or how grand his goals were. Now, under Obama and the “left”, America is where anyone who achieves and even exceeds his business and economic goals is treated with disdain and skepticism – and often unjustly called criminal. Obama has given us “change” all right – a change more negative than ever envisioned.
About Scott Paulson
Scott Paulson writes political commentary for Examiner.com and teaches English at a community college in the Chicago area. The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of CBS Local.
