Bill Clinton bounded into the centre of the US presidential election last night and immediately undermined one of the key pillars of President Obama’s re-election strategy.
The former Democratic President completely dismissed the Obama campaign’s attacks on Mitt Romney’s record at Bain Capital. Mr Clinton insisted that the Republican was a “sterling” businessman before offering a spirited defence of the kind of venture capitalism that turned Mr Romney into a wealthy man.
“I don’t think that we should get into the position where we say this is bad work, this is good work,” he said, before praising Mr Romney’s “good business career”.
Three weeks of concerted attacks on Bain orchestrated by the Obama campaign in Chicago have already drawn criticism from within the Democratic Party. Corey Booker, one of the party’s rising stars, said the debate over Bain was “nauseating” and a slew of liberal pundits have questioned the negativity of the attacks against Mr Romney’s business career.
Mr Clinton made it clear last night that he did not share the Obama camp’s view that Mr Romney had been a “vulture capitalist”.
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He said the election would be decided by the opposing policies of the two candidates, not Mr Romney’s readiness to serve. “The man who has been governor and had a sterling business career crosses the qualification threshold,” he said.
During an interview on CNN, Mr Clinton was asked whether he thought the Romney campaign would succeed in arguing that his business experience would help him run the economy. “I think it will affect some people who relate well to business people and I think he had a good business career,” he said.
“There’s a lot of controversy about that but if you go in and you try and save a failing company ... and make it more productive with the purpose of saving it and when you try, like anything else you try, you don’t always succeed. So I don’t think we should to get into the position where we say this is bad work,” he said. “This is good work.”
David Axelrod, a senior Obama campaign adviser, attempted to open a new front in the attacks against Mr Romney’s record. Speaking in Boston, he criticised his time as Governor of Massachusetts, but his press conference was overshadowed by chanting Romney supporters who drowned out his message.