Mitt Romney (Photo: Getty)

The progressive activist group UnitedNY is sending a group of people who have "worked for various companies owned by Bain Capital" to Tampa to serve as "ambassadors for the 99%" at the Republican National Convention. UnitedNY announced their convention plans today via a press release inviting reporters to watch the Bain workers depart from JFK on Saturday.

"The workers traveling to Tampa have worked for various companies owned by Bain Capital, a private equity firm Mitt Romney founded in 1984. They will participate in protests to draw attention to the harmful effects a “Romney-Ryan” economy would have on the vast majority of Americans," the press release said. 

In addition to employees from the Bain-owned companies Dunkin' Donuts, Burlington Coat Factory and Air Serv Corporation, UnitedNY said their RNC delegation will include other non-Bain affiliated "low-wage workers from throughout the city, representing various industries."

Democrats have tried to use Mr. Romney's private equity career against him throughout this campaign. Workers who claim to have had negative experiences at Bain-owned companies have previously haunted Mr. Romney by popping up in Obama campaign commercials, on conference calls and outside his rallies.

President Obama

After a brief respite for the holiday weekend, the battle over Bain Capital waged on in the presidential race. Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul took the first shot on CNN this morning by saying Mitt Romney's work at the private equity firm led to more new jobs than President Barack Obama's first term in the White House.

"Governor Romney has 25 years of experience as a businessman and entrepreneur, creating jobs. The only thing President Obama's ever managed is his own narrative," Ms. Saul told CNN anchor Soledad O'Brien. "Governor Romney has that experienced, he's learned from his successes and failures and he created more jobs at Bain Capital, or helped create more jobs at Bain Capital, than President Obama has in the entire nation as president."

Since Ms. Saul said Mr. Romney learned from his mistakes at Bain, Ms. O'Brien asked her to cite specific examples of failures that occurred on the company's watch. She wouldn't name any specific instances of mistakes made by Mr. Romney at Bain.

"Look, in business any entrepreneur knows that things don't always work out the way you want," said Ms. Saul. "The goal was always to grow companies to make them better, but it's not always going to work out."

Ms. O'Brien pressed the point, but Ms. Saul still didn't cite specific examples.

"Not every business is successful. So, he had successes, he had failures. I don’t have any specific examples to pass on, but there’re going to be ups and downs," Ms. Saul said. Anybody in the private sector understands that."

Ben LaBolt, press secretary for the Obama campaign, quickly pounced on Ms. Saul's refusal to name specific failures that occurred during Mr. Romney's Bain career. He issued a statement citing her comments as proof Mr. Romney doesn't learn from his mistakes and would institute. "the same failed policies that created the economic crisis in the first place."

"Mitt Romney has asked the American people to elect him based on his experience as a corporate buyout specialist--that’s the economic philosophy he would bring into the Oval Office.  He has claimed time and again that his goal was job creation, but the workers who lost their jobs when he profited off of bankrupting companies and outsourcing know that wasn’t the case," Mr. LaBolt said. "On CNN this morning, Andrea Saul couldn’t list a single lesson Mitt Romney learned from his failures as a corporate buyout specialist.  Does Mitt Romney still believe it’s okay to bankrupt a company and walk away with millions when workers are left without jobs, pensions, and health care? Romney’s record tells us he didn’t learn any lessons from his past failures."

President Obama

"He should be proud of the great personal success he's had as a CEO of a large financial firm. There are plenty of good and honest people in that industry, and there’s an important, creative role for it in the free market," said the president. "But Governor Romney has made his experience as a financial CEO the entire rationale of his candidacy for president. Now, he doesn’t really talk about what he did in Massachusetts. But he does talk about being a business -- business guy. Right? He says this gives him a special understanding of what it takes to create jobs and grow the economy. ... So I think it’s a good idea to look at the way he sees the economy."

President Obama explained that private equity firms do not exist to create jobs.

"Now, the main goal of a financial firm like Governor Romney’s is not to create jobs. And by the way, the people who work at these firms will tell you that’s not their goal," he said. "Their main goal is to create wealth for themselves and their investors. That’s part of the American way. That’s fine."

Though he called the work of these financial firms "part of the American way," he also described situations where private equity has a negative impact:

"Sometimes, jobs are created in that process. But when maximizing short-term gains for your investors rather than building companies that last is your goal, then sometimes it goes the other way. Workers get laid off. Benefits disappear. Pensions are cut. Factories go dark. In some cases, companies are loaded up with debt -- not to make the companies more productive, not to buy new equipment to keep them at the cutting-edge, but just to pay investors. Companies may go bankrupt as a result. Taxpayers may be on the hook to help out on those pensions. Investors walk off with big returns, and working folks get stuck holding the bag."

President Obama went on to say the president has to look at the economy far differently than those in private equity.

"The job of a President is to lay the foundation for strong and sustainable broad-based growth -- not one where a small group of speculators are cashing in on short-term gains. It’s to make sure that everybody in this country gets a fair shake," President Obama said. "When you’re the President, your job is to look out for the investor and the worker; for the big companies and the small companies; for the health of farmers and small businesspeople and the nurse and the teacher. You're supposed to be thinking about everybody -- and the health of the middle class. ... That’s how I see the economy."

President Obama also reminded the crowd that the Iowa State Fairgrouns was the setting for one of Mr. Romney's more controversial moments on the campaign trail. Last August at the fairgrounds, Mr. Romney infamously responded to a heckler asking him to raise taxes on corporations rather than people by saying, "Corporations are people, my friend."

According to President Obama, Mr. Romney's background in private equity explains that remark.

"Of course, the worldview that Governor Romney gained from his experience as a financial CEO explains something," President Obama said. "It explains why the last time he visited these very same fairgrounds, he famously declared that corporations are people."

President Obama (Photo: Getty)

Though the Obama campaign has repeatedly attacked Mitt Romney for his career at Bain Capital, President Obama still accepted $7,500 in campaign contributions from two Bain executives. His campaign press secretary, Ben LaBolt told The Politicker the president has no intention of giving the money back.

"No one aside from Mitt Romney is running for President highlighting their tenure as a corporate buyout specialist as one of job creation, when in fact, his goal was profit maximization," said Mr. LaBolt.  "The President has support from business leaders across industries who have seen him pull the economy back from the brink of another depression, manufacturing and the auto industry revived, and support his agenda to build an economy that lasts where America outinnovates and outeducates the rest of the world and economic security for the middle class is restored."

On Tuesday, Vice President Joe Biden defended the attacks on Mr. Romney's tenure at Bain Capital. Though he insisted he wasn't "criticizing private equity firms," Mr. Biden said there were many examples of Mr. Romney and his Bain colleagues causing tremendous harm.

"You hear all these stories about his partners buying companies … where they load up with a tremendous amount of debt. The companies go under, everybody loses their job, the community is devastated, but they make money," said Mr. Biden. "They make money even when a company goes bankrupt, when workers lose their jobs.”

Earlier in the week, President Obama described Bain and other private equity firms as a "healthy part of the free market" filled with many  "folks who do good work." However, he also said the priority of private equity companies is to "maximize profits," which is "not always going to be good for businesses or communities or workers." Because of this, he said Mr. Romney's work at Bain Capital isn't good preparation for the presidency.

"If your main argument for how to grow the economy is, ‘I knew how to make a lot of money for investors,’ then you are missing what this job is about," President Obama said. "It doesn’t mean you weren’t good at private equity. But that’s not what my job is as president. My job is to take into account everybody, not just some."

Mitt Romney is currently on a fundraising swing through New York City and Democrats like Congressman Jerry Nadler and state party chairman Jay Jacobs used the occasion  to blast, as Mr. Nadler framed it, Mr. Romney's economic "wizardry."

Of course, neither Mr. Nadler or Mr. Jacobs would attack the financial industry with the same rhetoric as officials in other parts of the country -- Mr. Nadler's district contains many people who work in Wall Street and Mr. Jacobs undoubtedly raises plenty of money from that constituency as well.

"I don't think the campaign is attacking private equity per se. Private equity is  a great business that very often rescues companies, restructures them and saves jobs," Mr. Nadler said in response to our question about Democrats feeling skittish about the president's rhetoric. "What the campaign is saying is that private equity can also be used by people with very little conscience to destroy companies, to take value out of those companies, to make profits for a few people and destroy lots of jobs. Mitt Romney -- as head of Bain -- did that."

"Most private equity people do a fine job and help the economy and take fair profits," he said later. "What the campaign is saying is not that there's anything against private equity when done right, it's against some people who do it wrong. Like Mitt Romney."

Mr. Nadler's argument was echoed by Mr. Jacobs. People who work in Mitt Romney's field aren't bad, but he the candidate still needs to be judged by his "ruthless" practices, especially as he has stressed his own business record in the campaign.

"He needed to practice a very ruthless form of business, and I'm not characterizing it as good or bad, but it's just a very different type of business that needs to be done if you want to be President of the United States," Mr. Jacobs said. "As president, you don't have that luxury. You don't have the luxury to be ruthless. Your constituency is everybody in America: the rich and the poor; the succeeding and the failing; the businessmen and the worker; and the strong and the weak."

Joe Biden (Photo: Getty)

At an event in New Hampshire today, Vice President Joe Biden launched the latest salvo in the Obama campaign's continuing attacks on Mitt Romney for his work at the private equity firm Bain Capital. He defended the validity of discussing Mr. Romney's career and characterized Bain as a parasitic corporation.

“Governor Romney has a trump card, he says. He says he is better qualified to be Commander-in-Chief because of his business experience. ... So look, he raised it. So let's take a look at his business experience," Mr. Biden said. "You hear all these stories about his partners buying companies … where they load up with a tremendous amount of debt. The companies go under, everybody loses their job, the community is devastated, but they make money. They make money even when a company goes bankrupt, when workers lose their jobs."

The Romney campaign has retaliated against past criticism of Mr. Romney's tenure at Bain Capital by characterizing it as an attack on private equity and highlighting comments made by Democrats who have expressed disagreement with the focus on Bain. Mr. Biden echoed the message the Obama campaign isn't attacking private equity as a whole and rejected the notion Brain shouldn't be an issue in the election.

"They say it’s the job of these private equity companies to create wealth for its investors. That when you provide what private equity firms are supposed to do, it’s make wealth for the investors. Exactly. Exactly. That is their job. It is legitimate," Mr. Biden said. "Making money for your investors, which Romney did very well, is not the president's job. The president has a different job. … I’m not criticizing private equity firms. But I'm suggesting the people who run them, the same quality and objective of running a private equity firm is not what qualifies you to be president."

Mr. Biden also emphasized "progress" made by the economy in his New Hampshire speech. The Romney campaign responded to his New Hampshire speech by saying they do not reflect the current reality in the country.

"Vice President Biden today claimed the Obama Administration’s economic progress ‘cannot be denied.’ He must not be talking to the millions of Americans who are suffering from declining incomes, fewer jobs, and skyrocketing household costs in the Obama economy," Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said.

RNC Deputy Communications Director Tim Miller tried to make a Cory Booker meme.

End you day with the @CoryBooker Kitteh, my most clicked twitter link of the month by 7-fold -- goo.gl/kJWcb

—
Tim Miller (@Timodc) May 21, 2012

The Atlantic's Associate Editor Matt O'Brien tried to rank the Cory Booker flap among this year's other campaign controversies.

Where does this Cory Booker flap rank on things that will affect voters? I put it somewhere between Hilary Rosen and Etch-A-Sketch.

—
Matt O'Brien (@ObsoleteDogma) May 21, 2012

The Drudge Report had an especially articulate response to the Bain brouhaha.

OOOOOOO NOOOOOO drudge.tw/LvQjoG

—
Drudge Report (@Drudge_Report) May 21, 2012

The White House showed off President Obama's football skills.

Photo of the Day: President Obama throws a football @soldierfield after the @NATO dinner in Chicago: http://t.co/tFyihpKx

—
The White House (@whitehouse) May 21, 2012

Salon's Alex Pareene parsed the latest bit of D.C. media news.

Frank Foer back at TNR is like Randy Moss back on the Vikings for people who care about weird things

—
Alex Pareene (@pareene) May 21, 2012

David Axelrod (Photo: Twitter)

Obama campaign senior strategist David Axelrod defended the campaign's continued attacks on Mitt Romney's work with Bain Capital in an appearance on MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell Reports this afternoon. Mr. Axelrod said Bain is a legitimate campaign issue because Mr. Romney regularly touts his business career and because some of the episodes at the company are "disturbing."

"Governor Romney offers his business experience as his principal and really his chief credential for running for office, he never talks about his years as Massachusetts governor and I think for good reason because they weren't stellar years. This is his argument: ‘I was a businessman. I can lead the economy.’ So it behooves us to ask exactly ‘what did you do?’" Mr. Axelrod said. "Some of these cases are disturbing and deserve to be looked at. ... He can't walk away from this."

Mr. Axelrod specifically cited GST Steel, a Kansas City company that went bankrupt while being managed by Bain. The Obama campaign has released an ad focusing on GST Steel.

"He was there throughout when they loaded this company with debt and he was there when they filed for bankruptcy," Mr. Axelrod said. "He shared in the proceeds of that when they made money even as workers lost not just their jobs, but also their retirement benefits. And that’s not right."

The Obama campaign's attacks on Bain were criticized as "nauseating" Sunday by Newark mayor and campaign surrogate Cory Booker in an appearance on NBC's Meet The Press. Mr. Booker subsequently released a video clarifying his comments by saying the focus on Bain is legitimate because Mr. Romney has made his work there “a centerpiece of his campaign.”

Mitt Romney

After President Barack Obama's campaign released a television ad attacking Mitt Romney's record at Bain Capital, Mr. Romney's campaign shot back with an ad crediting him with helping to build a company called Steel Dynamics.

"SDI almost never got started. When others shied away, Mitt Romney’s private sector leadership team stepped in," a narrator says in the ad.

President Obama's ad accused Mr. Romney and Bain of employing "vampire"-like tactics that drove a steel company in Kansas City to bankruptcy and resulted in workers losing their jobs and pensions. In Mr. Romney's ad, which was released online, a succession of Steel Dynamics workers describe Mr. Romney's backing of their company as "the perfect entrepreneurial story" and the embodiment of the "American Dream."

Watch Mr. Romney's new web ad, which is titled "American Dream" below.

President Barack Obama on stage in Albany. (Photo: Getty)

This morning, the Obama campaign rolled out a new ad blasting Mitt Romney's record as co-founder of Bain Capital. Mr. Romney's campaign fired back by challenging the veracity of the ad and the president's "failed record" on the economy.

“We welcome the Obama campaign’s attempt to pivot back to jobs and a discussion of their failed record.  Mitt Romney helped create more jobs in his private sector experience and more jobs as Governor of Massachusetts than President Obama has for the entire nation," Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul said in a statement. "President Obama has many questions to answer as to why his administration used the stimulus to reward wealthy campaign donors with taxpayer money for bad ideas like Solyndra, but 23 million Americans are still struggling to find jobs.  If the Obama administration was less concerned about pleasing their wealthy donors and more concerned about creating jobs, America would be much better off.”

The ad focuses on the story of a Kansas City company, GST Steel, which filed for bankruptcy in 2001 leading many workers to be laid off and to lose their pension benefits. In the ad, former GST workers blame Bain for mismanaging the company.

"It's like a vampire they came in and sucked the life out of us,"

Another worker, Joe Soptic, said Bain's treatment of GST shows Mr. Romney is not fit to be in the White House.

"He's running for president and, if he's going to run the country the way he ran our business, I wouldn't want him there," Mr. Soptic said in the ad. "He would be so out of touch with the average person in this country."

Though Mr. Romney was with Bain Capital when the company acquired GST in 1993, he left the company in 1999, two years before GST was closed. Ms. Saul pointed this fact out in another email to reporters that included a link to a Daily Caller article pointing out previous Obama campaign ads have been criticized for focusing on stories about Bain that occurred after Mr. Romney left the company.

The GST Steel ad will air in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Iowa and Colorado. The Obama campaign also created a longer version of the ad for a website, RomneyEconomics.com that focuses on stories about Bain Capital. Watch the GST Steel TV ad below.