Bain Capital

Mitt Romney claims that any criticism of his job-killing performance at his venture capital firm, Bain Capital, is an attack on the capitalist system ("Romney takes blows in N.H.," Jan. 10). Actually it is an attack on the kind of unregulated, predatory capitalism that corrupts the political process with unlimited, secret campaign contributions and fosters recessions through devious lending practices and shady investment schemes by Wall Street operatives. Jack Kinstlinger, Baltimore

Today's topic: the billions (yes, with a "b") that will be spent on advertising in this year's presidential and congressional campaigns, and what kind of messages that money is sending. Like jazz, blues and musical comedy, the political ad is a uniquely American contribution to the arts, only less uplifting. Some turn into classics, like Ronald Reagan's 1984 "Morning in America" ad or the 2008 will.i.am music video based on Barack Obama's "Yes, we can" speech. Whatever your politics, you had to admire their artistry.

It's one thing to criticize Mitt Romney for being a businessman with the wrong values. It's quite another to accuse him and his former company, Bain Capital, of doing bad things. If what Bain Capital did under Mr. Romney was bad for America, the burden shifts to Mr. Romney's critics to propose laws that would prevent Bain and other companies from doing such bad things in the future. Don't hold your breath. Newt Gingrich says Bain under Mr. Romney carried out "clever legal ways to loot a company.

Recent headlines of interest from the campaign trail, class warfare division: •The Washington Post: "President Obama Wants It Both Ways on Private Equity" •The Hill: "Democrats Balk at Obama Campaign's Sustained Attack on Bain Capital" •Buzzfeed: "Obama Bundler Decries Vilification of Private Equity" •Politico: "More Dems Struggle on Bain" •Boston Herald: "Deval Patrick Says Bain 'Not A Bad Company'" The foregoing...

Newark Mayor Cory Booker was wrong and President Barack Obama is right: Mitt Romney's record at Bain Capital deserves closer scrutiny by voters. Whether a brief television ad accomplishes this is another matter. Presidential campaigns are seldom pretty. And this year's race is certain to be worse than most. The rise of super PAC spending and the prospect of tens of millions of dollars spent pounding on the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's more inflammatory sermons or the creation of more websites devoted to the plight of the Romney family dog are especially depressing thoughts.

Your editorial on Mitt Romney's relationship to the private equity firm Bain Capital was not bad ("The Bain of Romney's candidacy," May 23). But while reviewing Mr. Romney's record, let's also look at President Obama's school record (including how his education was paid for and his grades), his leadership and management experiences and his employment history. Not to mention his voting record as a senator (like voting to not increase the debt). Come on, let's be fair. Lyle Rescott, Marriottsville

USinternetworking Inc. - the Annapolis software company that saw its losses widen, its work force dwindle and its stock price tumble this year - announced yesterday that it reached a deal to receive $100 million in financing from a Boston investment firm in exchange for a controlling interest in the company. "At the end of this, they're going to control the company, but the exact percentages haven't been determined yet," said Dave Miller, vice president of finance for USinternetworking.

Rugged individualist Mitt Romney is all for the free market, unless it involves pocketing millions in government corporate welfare. Check out the impressive list from Phil Mattera of Good Jobs First of all the companies backed by Bain Capital, Romney's company, that fed at the government udder. In case after case after case, Bain was enjoying public emoluments even as it bought and sold and downsized its way through these employers.  Says Mattera: "Yet a look at Romney's record at Bain shows not only Gordon Gekko-like business buccaneering, but also a willingness to embrace those very government checks and assurances he is now repudiating.

Less than six months after filing for Chapter 11, USinternetworking Inc. has emerged from bankruptcy protection and plans to announce today that it is merging with a North Carolina company. Upon completion of its restructuring plan, USinternetworking, an Annapolis technology company, received a cash infusion of $81.25 million from Boston-based Bain Capital Partners LLC. "We've gotten through all the issues; we are coming out as the industry leader," said Andrew A. Stern, USinternetworking's chief executive officer.

MONTREAL - Bombardier Inc., the world's third-biggest maker of commercial jets, agreed yesterday to sell its snowmobile and boat unit for C$1.23 billion ($880 million) to a group that includes the founder's family and Bain Capital LLC, taking another step to preserve the company's credit rating. The Bombardier family will keep 35 percent of the business, which was created about 61 years ago in Quebec to mass-produce the "snow vehicle" Joseph-Armand Bombardier invented. Boston-based Bain Capital will get 50 percent and Canada's biggest pension-fund manager will hold 15 percent, the group said in a statement.

I agree with The Sun's recent position on the relevance of Governor Romney's experience at Bain Capital to the presidential race that's already underway ("The Bain of Romney's campaign," May 22), but the methodology is curious. Asking Mr. Romney to give us his version of how Bain helped create jobs and save companies is like asking the fox how it protected the henhouse - or asking David Plouffe how President Barack Obama's stimulus package saved us from an even deeper recession. We'll get an answer, but it will have been vetted, cooked, skewed, and totally useless as a guide to making an informed decision about whose economic vision should guide the country as we begin to creep out of a long recession.

Your editorial on Mitt Romney's relationship to the private equity firm Bain Capital was not bad ("The Bain of Romney's candidacy," May 23). But while reviewing Mr. Romney's record, let's also look at President Obama's school record (including how his education was paid for and his grades), his leadership and management experiences and his employment history. Not to mention his voting record as a senator (like voting to not increase the debt). Come on, let's be fair. Lyle Rescott, Marriottsville

Newark Mayor Cory Booker was wrong and President Barack Obama is right: Mitt Romney's record at Bain Capital deserves closer scrutiny by voters. Whether a brief television ad accomplishes this is another matter. Presidential campaigns are seldom pretty. And this year's race is certain to be worse than most. The rise of super PAC spending and the prospect of tens of millions of dollars spent pounding on the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's more inflammatory sermons or the creation of more websites devoted to the plight of the Romney family dog are especially depressing thoughts.

As the Republicans continue to fret over Mitt Romney's authenticity or lack thereof, the Democrats unleashed their version in Ohio the other day by sending Vice President Joe Bidento a United Auto Workers hall in Toledo. Talk about sending coals to Newcastle. As Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and even Ron Paul struggle to establish themselves as the non-Romney before Republican audiences in the primary and caucus states, Mr. Biden just by being himself demonstrates what Mr. Romney desperately lacks.

Jay Hancock 's column "Missing the point about Romney" (Jan. 22) should be required reading in every economics class, and of course for every voter. The issue is not that Mitt Romney is rich or even that he paid low tax rates on his riches. The real issue is that Mr. Romney and Bain Capital illustrate why U.S. employment has stagnated for four decades. America cannot grow jobs because the only way a U.S. CEO knows how to create profits is not to make better products, increase sales, grow his company, and employ more people, but to let markets stagnate, reduce production, and lay-off, downsize, out-source and off-shore employees.

The complaint that those of us who frequently refer to the nation's breathtaking disparity in wealth and income and to its 46 million poor are engaging in "class warfare" usually comes from people, like Mitt Romney, who live in the highest end of American class structure. They always throw the red flags. "I think it's dangerous, this class warfare," Mr. Romney said of the Occupy Wall Street protests last fall. Campaigning toward yesterday's presidential primary in South Carolina, he accused Newt Gingrich, a fellow multimillionaire, of sowing "class warfare" with his criticisms of Mr. Romney's legacy at Bain Capital.

AT&T Corp. said yesterday that it plans to buy Annapolis-based USinternetworking Inc. for about $300 million. The deal pairs the national telecommunications giant with a local company that rode the tech wave from its status as Wall Street darling to bankruptcy and back to profitability. "Certainly AT&T is the cr?me de la cr?me of the telecommunications enterprise space, so to that extent that is a feather in [USinternetworking's] cap," said Christopher King, an analysts who follows AT&T for Stifel Nicolaus & Co. Inc. in Baltimore.

Nation : Earnings Sealy profit declines 27% Sealy Corp. said third-quarter profit fell 27 percent. Net income declined to $21.5 million, or 22 cents a share, from $29.4 million, or 30 cents a share, a year earlier, the company said yesterday. Acquisitions Bain-3Com deal due security review Bain Capital Partners will submit for a national security review its planned $2.2 billion buyout of network equipment maker 3Com Corp. to address concerns about a Chinese telecommunications company's minority stake.

It's one thing to criticize Mitt Romney for being a businessman with the wrong values. It's quite another to accuse him and his former company, Bain Capital, of doing bad things. If what Bain Capital did under Mr. Romney was bad for America, the burden shifts to Mr. Romney's critics to propose laws that would prevent Bain and other companies from doing such bad things in the future. Don't hold your breath. Newt Gingrich says Bain under Mr. Romney carried out "clever legal ways to loot a company.

While Mitt Romney continues to depend on the notion that he is the Republican best equipped to beat President Barack Obama in November, another question of perception hovers over him. Do voters like the guy? It's a question that clings to him as he struggles against his natural reserve and buttoned-down style, which no number of tie-less appearances can change and turn him into one of the boys. He reminds one of the old gag about the fastidious Spiro Agnew -- that his wife would roll him out each morning on a skateboard, with every hair in place.