Bain Capital Versus "Green Economy"

That which Obama builds, doesn't last.

Mr. Romney can happily claim credit for Bain's entire impressive history, rather than just the period through 1999. He has every right to do so as the company's founder. And it will help illuminate the basic difference between his Bain career and the President's 3.5 years running America's economic policy to deliver 8.2% unemployment.

Mr. Romney's Bain worked so well that it became the model for an entire industry. Mr. Romney helped create Staples, a start-up that worked and created tens of thousands of jobs. Mr. Obama financed Solyndra, which did not work. Neither did Abound Solar. The many Obama alternative-energy ventures play in different market segments, but they struggle for the same reason: They serve political agendas more than customers.

Mr. Romney has attacked Mr. Obama's Solyndra investment in particular, but he hasn't linked it consistently to the President's failed model of government-led investing or contrasted it with the successful culture Mr. Romney built at Bain. 

What Bain did is what all successful organizations do: Seek to deliver products and services that are better, faster, cheaper. In some instances that means fewer employees, even if Mr. Obama still can't or won't grasp the concept that we live in a competitive world. How many readers of this editorial have jobs today because the founders of their companies figured out how to spend more money on a slower manufacturing process to create goods of lower quality?

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Overall, Bain capitalism means more successes than failures, and many more jobs. In March of this year, the managing directors of Bain Capital wrote to their investors and reported that, over the firm's 28 years, companies backed by Bain have grown their revenues more than twice as fast "as both the S&P and the U.S. economy."