Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: Outsourcing a source of pain for Romney's campaign

Visual source: Newseum

That Washington Post headline about the outsourcing focus at Bain Capital during Mitt Romney's tenure there is sure to prompt more questions for Romney's campaign -- questions that aren't likely to have a positive answer for the Republican candidate.

Connor Simpson at The Atlantic looks at how Camp Romney is responding so far to The Washington Post analysis that Bain Capital helped to outsource jobs overseas:

The Romney campaign "repeatedly declined requests" to comment on the story, but a Bain spokesman didn't hesitate at all. "Bain Capital's business model has always been to build great companies and improve their operations," he told them. "We have helped the 350 companies in which we have invested... produce $80 billion of revenue growth in the United States while growing their revenues well over twice as fast as both the S&P and the U.S. economy over the last 28 years."

The first outsourcing company Bain invested in was Corporate Software Inc. which provided call centers for tech companies. Bain invested in the company in 1993 as minority stakeholder, and CSI started outsourcing its work by the mid-1990s. CSI merged with another company to become Stream, and expanded its outsourcing through the '90s. Bain eventually became the majority shareholder a few months after Romney left Bain in 1999. Bain was also active in running a Stream subsidiary, Modus Media, that also outsourced call center work. Bain also invested in bike manufacturer GT Bicycle Inc. and electronics manufacturer SMTC Corp., both were American companies that used overseas production.

Jonathan Chait at New York Magazine on Mitt Romney's unrealistic approach to immigration reform:

The general theme of Mitt Romney's campaign is that President Obama is 100 percent responsible for everything that has happened since he took office, including not only worldwide economic events but decisions of the Republican Congress. He mainly applies this assumption to economic policy, but extends it to things like immigration as well. Here's Romney not saying what he would do about Obama's enforcement of the DREAM Act:

'Unfortunately, despite his promises, President Obama has failed to address immigration reform,' Romney declared in prepared remarks, saying this of Obama's new deportation policy: 'Some people have asked if I will let stand the president's executive action. The answer is that I will put in place my own long-term solution that will replace and supersede the President's temporary measure.'

Note that Romney here is consistently applying his assumption of presidential omnipotence to a future Romney administration. First he claims that Obama "failed" because Republicans filibustered the DREAM Act. Then, avoiding the part where Obama overcame that unilaterally, he asserts he will "put in place" his own plan. Right away! Making any decision about continuing Obama's executive action unnecessary! Quite a trick. If Romney announces on January 20 that he's dissolving Congress and ruling by decree, I guess we can't say we weren't warned.

Adam Sorenson at TIME looks at Romney's about-face on immigration:

Pare away the tough economic talk, the requisite condemnations of President Obama, and Mitt Romney's Thursday address at a conference of Latino elected officials in Orlando was a softer moment for a candidate who spent much of the last two presidential election cycles savaging his primary opponents on immigration. He didn't denounce 'magnets' for illegals like he did during his winter clashes with Rick Perry, or rail against 'amnesty' as he did in 2008 while running against John McCain. Circumstances have forced Romney to recalibrate.

Well, not entirely. Romney's central message was still a biting commentary on the economy, a topic he never leaves alone for long. The substance was fine-tuned for the audience, but familiar. 'Over two million more Hispanics are living in poverty today than the day President Obama took office,' he said. 'Home values have plunged, our national debt is at record levels and families are buried under higher prices for food and gasoline.' But the general election and Obama's decision to make an end-run around Congress by issuing an executive order last week that will stop deportations of young undocumented immigrants and issue them work permits forced Romney to respond on immigration in ways he previously hadn't.

Matt Negrin at ABC News:

Two people told Bloomberg that the campaign asked Gov. Rick Scott to "tone down his statements." Democrats have interpreted that as Romney "rooting for failure" as far as the economy is concerned.

Romney and Scott deny the story, which highlights a strategy problem for the GOP: How do you make Obama look bad on the economy while hailing Republican governors in states where the economy is improving? [...]

Romney faces a similar problem in Michigan, Ohio, Nevada and Virginia ' key battleground states in which Republican governors are trying to enhance their own political prospects by talking up economic progress.

In those states, governors say that they deserve credit for the recovering economy, not Obama.

Michael Finnegan and Morgan Little at The Los Angeles Times:

'If we learned anything from today's revelation that Mitt Romney urged Gov. Rick Scott to downplay good economic news in Florida, it's this: Mitt Romney would rather see the American economy fail before the election than see President Obama win,' said Martin O'Malley, the Democratic governor of Maryland whose statement was circulated Friday by the Obama reelection campaign.

The dust-up reflected the growing tension between Romney, whose campaign is premised on portrayals of economic misery under Obama, and Republican governors who are eager to take credit for job growth in their states.

Scott Conroy reminds us of a key fact:

CBS News political director John Dickerson, who covered his first presidential campaign as an embedded reporter in 1996, said that the VP guessing game is always replete with pure speculation and serves mainly to fill a vacuum during the summer doldrums, when there is a relative scarcity of major campaign news.

"Vice presidential picks are important because they tell us something about how the guy at the top of the ticket thinks and how he might run his presidency," Dickerson said. "None of that can be adequately evaluated by talking about whether Carroll Campbell is going to be Bob Dole's VP pick. From a news standpoint, it's one of the least nourishing pieces you can do. It tells us nothing."

Members of Romney's Boston-based staff often marvel privately at the extent to which the selection process -- being led by longtime confidante Beth Myers -- has been kept secret from almost everyone inside the campaign, never mind those on the outside.