Tipsheet

Team Obama Defense of Bain Attacks Getting Pretty Pathetic

If you can't defend an attack with factual information and without hypocrisy, making the attack in the first place probably isn't the best idea. Team Obama's ongoing attack on Mitt Romney's connection to Bain Capital, Bain Capital and private equity in general, really isn't working.


As Cooper mentioned in the clip above, Obama recently held a series of fundraisers with heads of private equity firms. Also, let's go back to 2008 when President Obama raised significantly more money from Wall Street than GOP rival John McCain.

Overall, 57 percent of this industry's contributions to the race (including all candidates who have run) have been to Democratic candidates. Since the start of 2007, Obama has received $7.9 million, with Clinton only about $800,000 behind. Should Obama continue to be this industry's financial favorite, it will become the first time since 1994 that the Democrats will have brought in more Wall Street donations than the Republicans. In the 2004 election cycle, President Bush collected nearly twice that of Democrat John Kerry from the securities and investment industry--$9.2 million compared to $4.8 million. This cycle, Republican candidate John McCain, who would likely be less tough on trade and regulation than Obama, still falls short with a mere $4.1 million. This is also behind what former Republican candidates Rudolph Giuliani and Mitt Romney were given this election cycle.

 

Not to mention, Obama has recieved more money from Bain Capital than Romney during this election cycle, despite Obama's continued attacks.

Obama’s fundraising advantage is clear in the case of Bain Capital, the Boston-based private-equity firm that was co-founded by Romney, and where the Republican made his fortune. Not surprisingly, Romney has strong support at the firm, raking in $34,000 from 18 Bain employees, according to the analysis of data from the Center for Responsive Politics.

But Obama has outdone Romney on his own turf, collecting $76,600 from Bain Capital employees through September — and he needed only three donors to do it.