Documents reveal Romney stayed longer at Bain Capital

[Bull Moose Base]

Romney's defense in his campaign for president: Yes I was president but I had no idea what was going on and I'm not responsible for it.

[Bull Moose Base]

It's not impossible undecided voters will have enough appreciation for nuance to see Romney as not culpable for Bain's actions despite being president and CEO in SEC filings and personally testifying that he was returning and attending Bain meetings as much as he could.  But it seems doubtful they could grasp that idea and simultaneously be so simple-minded as to hold the incumbent accountable for the bad economy without considering the GOP has been blocking his last jobs plan for over a year.

[Bull Moose Base]

As for the political effect of it, we can tell the Romney Campaign thinks the story is damaging based on the way they uncharacteristically scrambled a slew of interviews in response to it.  I'll say it again.  Voters have a range of levels of attentiveness and sophistication.  The fact that Romney was the president and CEO, contradicting his own claims, while Bain got in bed with outsourcing pioneers is going to hurt him.  It's obvious.  There may be a segment of undecided voters (a minority probably) who are able to make distinction between Romney's being CEO of Bain and in total control of Bain, but that level of sophistication will simultaneously allow them to see the distinction between being President with a hostile congress and being in full control of economic policy.  And Romney's case looks worse.  Even setting aside the fact that Romney was the co-founder and CEO of Bain, there's no reason to believe he was unaware or had any objection to what Bain was doing from 1999-2002.  What about it seems even slightly inconsistent with his philosophy and approach to business?  On the other hand, because of divided government, there are elements of economic policy diametrically opposed to Obama's views.  But I don't know most voters view that kind of nuance.