Exclusive – The Vetting – Obama Praised Private Equity When He Needed Cash

[Breitbart.com]

Posted:  July 2, 2012 – Written by John Sexton

 President Barack Obama has attacked Gov. Mitt Romney’s record in the private equity industry as CEO of Bain Capital. But ten years ago, as he struggled to raise funds for his long-shot U.S. Senate campaign, then-State Senator Obama decided to embrace the private equity industry and its wealthy Chicago political donors. At one point, Obama even co-sponsored a resolution in the Illinois Senate calling calling private equity firms like Bain “the best opportunity for long-term economic vitality” and for “the creation of jobs.”

Obama’s campaign ads dismissively compare Romney’s work at Bain to that of a “vampire” draining jobs and money from vulnerable companies and workers. After pushback from a handful of pro-free market Democrats in late May, the President himself publicly defended his campaign’s attacks on private equity firms like Bain.

But records from Obama’s time as a state senator in Illinois, along with recollections of those who worked with him, present a very different stance. They indicate that Obama worked hard to position himself as a strong supporter of the venture capital industry. Obama attended industry social functions and used his position in the state senate to propose bills consistent with the legislative goals of the venture capital industry in the state.

“The Barack Obama I knew in Springfield was very pro-private equity, private capital, and high technology” Republican State Senator Kirk Dillard, who served with Obama in the Illinois State Senate, said in a telephone interview with Breitbart News about Obama’s record last week. “Mr. Obama clearly had many friends in the private equity business when he was a legislator,” Dillard added.

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July 2, 2012 | Categories: 2012 Election, American Exceptionalism, Congress, Congress: Inquiries & Committees, Constitutional Responsibilities, Corruption, Corruption in Government, Deficit, Due Process of Law, Economic Security, Election 2012, Elections Politics, Excessive Government Spending, Fiscal Responsibility, Freedom Justice and Liberty, Government, Government Regulations, Jobs, Liberals Big Spending and Taxes, Most Americans Reject Socialism, National Debt, National Security, New Media News, Political Incompetence, Politics, POTUS Deception, POTUS Elibility Issue, Radical Liberal Progressive Left, Tea Party Conservatives, TEA Taxed Enough Already, The Economy, Unemployment, Wall Street - Main Street | Tags: attacked Romney, bain capital, Barack Obama, Business, economy, government, illinois state senate, Illinois Venture Capitalist Association, Jack Levin, Kirland & Ellis Law Firm, Maura O'Hara, Mitt Romney, politics, praised private equity, private equity firms, republican state senator, Sen. Obama, The Vetting, U. S. Senate campaign, when he needed cash | 1 Comment »