Axelrod Lies, Former Auto Czar Steve Rattner Calls Foul, And Obama Gets His Dates Wrong

"Fair is foul, and foul is fair: / Hover through the fog and filthy air" -The witches at the opening of Shakespeare's Macbeth.

Just one week ago the Daily Caller Reported Obama political guru David Axelrod promised a positive campaign (as he went on to bash Romney and his supporters).

President Barack Obama’s top campaign adviser simultaneously described some of the president’s critics as “contract killers” and Obama’s campaign as a positive pitch.
Presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney is being aided by “the Karl and Koch brothers’ contract killers in super PAC land,” David Axelrod, Obama’s senior political consultant, said May 7.

“We’re going to be tough about that even as we make our positive case to the American people,” Axelrod said in a brief telephone press conference.

But in the world of Barack Obama and David Axelrod, words do not necessary have the same meaning as we are used to and promises come with an expiration date

Today the positive Obama campaign has launched a new round of negative TV attack ads against Mitt Romney, portraying Romney as a heartless job destroyer in his days at Bain Capital (strong words for a man who responsible for closing 1,500 or more auto dealerships as part of the auto bailout).

Note: If you cannot see two videos in this post, please click here!

Speaking of the auto bailout, Steven Rattner, a former Obama administration Auto Czar  (and major Democratic party donor) criticized the ad, saying in a TV interview telling morning Joe, he thinks the Obama ad is  “unfair.”

"I think the ad is unfair. Mitt Romney made a mistake ever talking about the fact that he created 100,000 jobs. Bain Capital's responsibility was not to create 100,000 jobs or some other number. It was to create profits for his investors, most of whom were pension funds, endowments and foundations. It did it superbly, acting within the rules and acting very responsibly and was a leading firm," Ratner said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Monday.

"So I do think to pick out an example of somebody who lost their job unfortunately, this is part of capitalism, this is part of life. And I don't think there's anything Bain Capital did that they need to be embarrassed about," he said.

Rattner should know, he used to run venture capital company Quadrangle, which used to own my former employer, Publishing Group of America (its now owned by Bain).

Being owned by a venture capital company is a bit like borrowing money from the mob. If you promised to give them $100 on Monday, you better not show up on Tuesday with only half the money. They are high pressure profit intensive businesses.

Obama's ad proves Axelrod to be a liar, and the president to know little about the free market.

UPDATE: Big Government's   Mike Flynn reports that Romney was long gone by the time the steel mill in the commercial was closed, one person still at Bain who might have had some influence in closing down the steel plant happens to be a major Obama bundler.

The company was shut down in 2001. Romney left Bain in 1999, long before the plant closing, to run Winter Olympics. Two years is an eternity in the business world. Blaming Romney for decisions made two years after the left the company is at best disingenuous.
However, there was a political power-player serving as a director of Bain at the time of the company's bankruptcy and layoffs--Jonathan Lavine. Lavine joined Bain in 1993. He is currently Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer. He is also a major bundler for Barack Obama, raising between $100-200k for the his reelection. While we don't know the specific role Lavine had in decisions regarding the bankrupt company, he certainly had more influence than someone who had left Bain two years before.