The Romney campaign responded on Friday to the damning Washington Post report that Bain Capital invested in companies specializing in relocating jobs overseas, saying the story is flawed because it confuses “outsourcing” jobs with “offshoring” jobs.
“This is a fundamentally flawed story that does not differentiate between domestic outsourcing versus offshoring nor versus work done overseas to support U.S. exports. Mitt Romney spent 25 years in the real world economy so he understands why jobs come and go,” said Romney spokesperson Andrea Saul. “As president, he will implement policies that make it easier and more attractive for companies to create jobs here at home. President Obama’s attacks on profit and job creators make it less attractive to create jobs in the U.S.”
Hardball’s Michael Smerconish asked Salon editor at large Joan Walsh if the response is sufficient and satisfactory.
She broke it down:
“No, it’s an intentionally confusing issue and statement, Michael, and I think you can see that. The problem with the Romney campaign is that the Post story is very, very explicit that they were talking about offshoring. It is true that outsourcing can be moving jobs out of a company to another firm that does it cheaper in the United States, and that does happen, but the Post was very careful to delineate the firms that Bain invested in whose business model was essentially offshoring a lot of technology jobs.
I think it is resonating with voters and I think on this particular issue you’ve got a hypocrisy problem because you’ve got Mitt Romney actually saying, one of the few concrete things he says, is that basically he’s going to pick a fight with China and we’ve got examples of how he worked to send American jobs to China.”
Speaking in Tampa, FL today, President Obama also addressed the WaPo report – and he didn’t miss the opportunity to go on the offense.
“Let me tell ya, Tampa,” he said. “We do not need an outsourcing pioneer in the Oval Office, we need a president who will fight for American jobs and fight for American manufacturing. That’s what my plan will do.”