Romney hits back at Obama attacks on Bain

WASHINGTON (AP) — Mitt Romney, stung by persistent attacks on the Republican challenger's record as a businessman, tried to take the political offensive against President Barack Obama on Monday, saying that all Obama can do is attack him rather than talk about his record in the White House.

The Obama campaign has hammered at Romney's business record, especially discrepancies over when he departed as chief of the private equity firm Bain Capital that he co-founded in the 1980s. Romney says his business record is his chief qualification to be president, and it is the source of his vast fortune, estimated at a quarter of a billion dollars.

"What does it say about a president whose record is so poor that all he can do in this campaign is attack me?" Romney asked in an interview Monday with Fox News.

In a separate interview with CBS, Obama said he has run mostly positive campaign ads but said those are largely ignored by the media.

In his interview, Romney was asked whether Obama should apologize for statements and campaign ads suggesting that Romney has not been truthful in his accounts of his record as head of Bain. Last week, Stephanie Cutter, Obama's deputy campaign manager, suggested Romney might be guilty of a felony if he misrepresented his position at Bain in filings to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

"I think when people accuse you of a crime, you have every reason to go after them pretty hard, and I'm going to continue going after him," Romney said.

He defended his business record but did not renew his demand that Obama apologize. Romney also declined to make a fuller disclosure of tax returns than he has already committed himself to releasing. He has released a federal tax filing for 2010 and an estimate for 2011.

The latest exchanges came as Obama made campaign appearances in Ohio, a critical state for both candidates. Romney raised campaign money in the safely Republican states of Louisiana and Mississippi.

Romney's campaign, moving to the attack, contended that Obama's Energy Department has steered loans and grants to several companies connected to the president's political supporters.

Romney, speaking to donors in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, said Obama had a policy of "taking your tax dollars and putting it in businesses owned by contributors to his campaign. And that is smelly at best. It stinks."

Romney aides cited some well-known cases, such as Solyndra, a California solar energy company that went bankrupt, and some less-publicized cases. They include Westly Group, a venture capital firm whose affiliated companies have received federal loans and grants.

Steve Westly, the company's founder, is a major Obama campaign fundraiser.

Obama campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the Energy Department's decisions "were made without regard to political connections." She said some grants have gone to projects with "just as robust connections to Republican campaigns and donors."

Romney was accompanied in Louisiana by the state's governor, Bobby Jindal, the son of immigrants from India. Jindal is considered a possible vice presidential pick for Romney.

Top Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom told The Associated Press that the campaign may announce a vice presidential choice by the end of the week. That would be sooner than many have expected, and some Democrats suggested it was another effort to turn attention from Bain.

The timing was far from certain. Asked whether the announcement could come this week, Fehrnstrom said: "Technically it could, but the governor hasn't made a decision."

In Cincinnati, Obama needled his Republican rival for finally having a job-creation plan — for people overseas during his first town hall meeting of the campaign in which he opened the floor to questions from the friendly audience.

Obama said Romney's proposal to free companies from taxes on their foreign holdings would displace American workers. The president cited a study he said concluded that "Gov. Romney's economic plan would in fact create 800,000 jobs. There's only one problem, the jobs wouldn't be in America."

Romney's campaign cited campaign disclosure reports showing that the article's author, Reed College economist Kimberly A. Clausing, has donated money to Obama's campaign. Republicans say Romney's overall tax proposals would encourage greater job growth at home.

Romney "has a comprehensive plan to reform the corporate tax code that will lower rates, get rid of incentives for firms to create jobs in other countries, and encourage the kind of economic growth President Obama has been unable to deliver," said campaign spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg.

For all the tax talk, the past several days of the campaign have centered on Romney's former work at Bain Capital and whether he has been straightforward about the timing of his departure, a line of attack that Obama is exploiting to try to undermine public support in Romney's business credentials and trustworthiness.

Romney has said he left Bain in early 1999, shortly before it invested in companies that were pioneers of job outsourcing. Romney says he played no role in those transactions and decisions.

Two years later, however, Bain was still filing disclosure documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission that named Romney as the firm's CEO, president, sole shareholder and "the controlling person." At least one document in early 2001 said Romney's "principal occupation" was as Bain's managing director.

Bain says it took some time for disclosure forms to catch up with management changes at the firm. Romney says he was working fulltime on the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympic Games starting in early 1999. Democrats say Romney has yet to satisfactorily explain the discrepancies.