Timeline

There seems to be an issue of when Romney was actually employed and active with his company, Bain Capital.  On one hand, Romney has claimed that he became inactive after February, 1999.  However, Romney signed SEC documents stating he was CEO, President, and sole stockholder as late as 2002.  In addition, in financial disclosure statements, Romney did claim to be receiving compensation in excess of $100,000 per year after the February 1999 “end” date.  Finally, when defending his right to run as a candidate for Governor of Massachusetts, Romney, under oath, claimed to have presence in Massachusetts when his opponents claimed he was no longer a resident of Massachusetts and he claimed this presence was, in part, job related.  However, all of this discussion really clouds the primary issue.  That issue is whether Romney’s experience at Bain Capital would provide him with the necessary skills to “create jobs” while serving as President of the United States.  This is a claim made by Romney and the Romney campaign.  To support this claim as a “job creator, when running for governor, Romney claimed his tenure at Bain resulted in over 10,000 jobs.  Later, during the campaign for the republican nomination, this number escalated to 100,000 jobs.  His opponents, countering these claims have pointed out the number of jobs that were lost after companies were acquired by Bain.  Here comes the rub.  Romney claims that the lost jobs and domestic company closures occurred AFTER his February 1999 termination date.  What he fails to substantiate is how many of his “created” jobs also may have occurred after the February 1999 termination date.  However, rather than focusing on a timeline what makes more sense is to focus on the economy of those towns and cities where Bain Capital was involved in corporate takeovers.  Did the activities of Nain ,ake the economy of the area better or worse.  What also makes sense in an ironic way is to look at the fact that when Governor of Massachusetts, Romney outsourced a call center for Massachusetts unemployment questions.  What also remains unanswered is how Romney can justify the various other “misstatements”, untruths, or outright lies that have been attributed to him by both his opponents for the Republican nomination or, more recently, by the Obama campaign.  At no time in history has a candidate for President of the United States been caught making so many statements that lack any substance of fact.  Does it really matter when Romney relinquished control of Bain or is it more important the character of Willard M Romney and whether that character approaches the level of being considered presidential.