Bain Damage For Romney?

I always believed that the biggest obstacle that Mitt Romney would face on the way to the nomination would be his work at Bain Capital.

Sure, there was the flip-flopping on social issues like gay rights and abortion and Romneycare, but social issues seem to carry little weight in this election cycle, and Romney did a credible job explaining how he had to work with a state legislature that was 85% Democratic on a health care bill. As a candidate, Mitt Romney has touted his business experience as an asset and this has resonated well with the electorate in an election cycle where the single overriding issue is the economy.

Some see the attacks from Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry as something that will come back to hurt Romney in November if he wins the nomination. That would seem logical, wouldn't it?

One of the best things about a primary contest is that it allows the party to vet its candidates and weed out those who have a fatal flaw. The other thing that primaries seem to do is inoculate the eventual nominee in the general election. This works if a candidate can successfully overcome the attack.

We saw this four years ago. Hillary Clinton attacked Obama on his inexperience and on his nefarious associations will people like Bill Ayres and Jeremiah Wright. By overcoming those attacks in the primary, Obama was essentially immune to similar attacks made by McCain.

The same is true about attacks concerning George W. Bush's military record and Bill Clinton's draft record, as well as his...this is a family website, but I think you know where I'm headed. By addressing these things in the primary, it was futile for their respective opponents to bring them up again.

Now, this only works if the candidate is successful at addressing the attacks. Four years ago, Rudy Giuliani stumbled over the legal problems concerning his former police chief and political ally, Bernard Kerik. Just as Joe Biden couldn't overcome accusations of plagiarism and Howard Dean couldn't overcome being Howard Dean.

It looks like Romney will be able to explain his work at Bain Capital. Fortunately, Republicans tend to go along with most free-market arguments. While the companies that failed under his watch may be gone and forgotten, people are well aware of the successes like Staples and Domino's. Besides, business is not like first grade soccer where no one keeps score and everyone gets a trophy. Sometimes you lose.

If history repeats itself, and it usually does, Romney should be able to take this off the table as an issue in November. That, or it will be Newt's turn to do some 'splainin'.