Obama, "Americans are Just Too Stupid!"

Yesterday at his NATO Summit press conference President Obama doubled-down his attacks on Bain Capital and on GOP Candidate Mitt Romney. He said Romney was missing what this job is about" by touting his experience at Bain:

The president said he understands private equity's role of maximizing profits is a "healthy part of the free market." But he said "that's not always going to be good for communities or businesses or workers," and he defended his campaign's decision to scrutinize Romney's Bain record."(Romney's) main calling card for why he thinks he should be president is his business experience," Obama said. 

He went on to say the job of president is "not simply to maximize profits" and that he has to take "everybody" into account -- suggesting Romney would not do the same. 

"And so if your main argument for how to grow the economy is, 'I knew how to make a lot of money for investors,' then you're missing what this job is about," Obama said.

Make no mistake about it.  Barack Obama is not attacking Mitt Romney as much as he attacking Americans for being too ignorant to make the correct marketplace choices. 

Capitalism is the most democratic of economic systems...we (the consumers) get to choose with our wallets which brands make it and which ones fail. 

Bain didn't shut down that plant--the consumers of its product shut it down. If a steel mill owned by Bain wasn't making money it means the mill couldn't compete with more efficient mills, or ones that produced better product. 

You bet it’s all about profit. That's what keeps the market place honest. The market place has no prejudice. It does not care if the president of a company is Black, White, Asian, Jewish, Christian or Sikh. It is the fairest system of all.  In capitalism the way to maximize profits is to develop the best products at the lowest cost, in other words listen to the consumer.

That money Bain spent on the Steel Mill would benefit the consumers and create more jobs if spent elsewhere.

Having spent 30+ years in marketing I have seen it happen often. There is truism in advertising that nothing kills a bad product like good advertising.  What it means is once the consumer tries a product, if it doesn't work or isn't worth the price it won't be purchased again.

When the government gets involved  "taking everyone into account" as the president insists, it messes up the system and produces higher prices and/or lousy product (like the exploding Volt).

The only job of the government in a capitalist economy is to play umpire. Make sure companies are not lying to, or defrauding the public, enforcing an even playing field where the marketplace is as free as possible. That's what creates a successful economy with a growing private sector and more jobs.

That is the essential difference between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama.  Romney believes in the American people's ability to pick winning products and companies, Obama believe we are too dumb to make that choice and we need the government to choose for us. Hence we have the oppressive EPA regulations, Obamacare mandating that you buy insurance, Dodd/Frank, etc.  Those regulations and mandates are just the progressive's way of telling Americans they are just too stupid to make their own choices.