Mitt's misery, in a word: Bain

By: Alexander Burns and Maggie Haberman
Politico.com
January 22, 2012 06:40 PM EST

COLUMBIA, S.C. – The verdict is in: Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital problem is real.

Of all the forces that converged to doom Romney in Saturday’s South Carolina primary, none may be as disconcerting for Republicans as the attacks on Romney’s private equity work – an offensive that caught Romney off-guard and triggered a damaging conversation about his vast personal wealth.

Even as Romney blasted his assailants – Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich and a pro-Gingrich super PAC – as anti-capitalism, he also left sympathetic GOP elites agog with a series of missteps that bolstered the charge that he’s an out-of-touch mega-millionaire.

Rather than cheerfully giving a detailed account of his Bain career, as he sees it, Romney grumbled in one debate that it was “strange, on a stage like this with Republicans, having to describe how private equity and venture capital work.” He fumbled questions about whether he’d release his tax returns, gave shifting answers on how many jobs he’d helped create and told a crowd earlier this month that he liked being able to fire service providers.

(More here.)