Right Change: Booker Backs Away from Bain Comments

We already wrote about Newark Mayor Booker  and how he was “nauseated” at the discourse of the current politics and particularly the Obama campaign attacks on Mitt Romney’s time at Bain Capital. However, not even 24 hours later the Obama regime had obviously gotten their hooks into Booker and he was suddenly singing a different tune.

Just for a recap – On Sunday morning Booker said, “Especially, I know, I live in a state where pension funds, unions and other people are investing in companies like Bain Capital. If you look at the totality of Bain Capital’s record — they’ve done a lot to support businesses, to grow businesses and this to me, I’m very uncomfortable.”

Unfortunately, Booker is as spineless as most politicians we have come to know. By Sunday night, Booker had released a YouTube video backtracking and saying such an examination of Romney’s business record is “reasonable” and that he “encourages” it. He also made it clear that Obama “more than deserves reelection”.

The Blaze reports:

The quick about face led the crew of “Fox & Friends” to speculate if the White House called Booker and pressured him to clarify. And even the crew over at “Morning Joe” couldn’t deny the odd backtrack. In fact, they coined a new phrase for Booker’s YouTube confession: the “hostage video.”

Making the situation stickier for the folks in Chicago, POLITICO’s Dylan Byers noted last night that Obama campaign Press Secretary Ben LaBolt was caught tweeting out Booker’s hostage video but cut down to just 35-seconds, making the mayor’s remarks seem much more apologetic.

What gets lost in the edit is the nuance of Booker’s argument. Watching the 35-second video, one would believe that Booker was flip-flopping from his comments on Meet The Press and going on an all-out assault on Romney. In the four-minute video, Booker stands by his comments — including “nauseating” — and explains that while he does think Romney’s record is fair game, he remains “frustrated” by the Obama campaign’s negative attacks.

Republicans have jumped on Booker‘s comments and the Obama campaign’s subsequent reaction, organizing a “I Stand With Cory” petition to stop the Obama campaign’s effort to “silence support for job creation.”

POLITICO notes that a RNC spokesman has emailed saying “It’s clear this video was orchestrated by the Obama campaign, and as long as he is President any defense of the free market/private sector by members of his party must be silenced and apologized for.”

Byers notes that LaBolt’s twitter account has also released a 17-second version of Booker’s video, seemingly indifferent from the original edit.

LaBolt has responded to an email from the New York Observer:

“We’re not questioning the purpose of the private equity business as a whole or Romney’s capacity to run a business as he saw fit,” he said. “We’re questioning what the values and lessons are from that experience and whether the economic philosophy that he demonstrated while he was a corporate buyout specialist is one that Americans would like to see in the Oval Office.”

Mr. LaBolt also pointed to the segment of Mr. Booker’s video that he highlighted as evidence Mr. Booker believes the Bain criticism is legitimate.

“As you know, Mayor Booker expanded upon his comments yesterday and he pointed out, in a similar fashion that we have today, that Romney has based his candidacy on his tenure as a corporate buyout specialist,” said Mr. LaBolt.

Absent from this explanation is why the campaign chose to edit out Booker’s repeated criticisms of negative campaigning from both sides.

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