周一晚间，美国奥巴马总统出席了黑石集团（Blackstone Group）总裁托尼•詹姆斯在纽约公园大道公寓内举行的晚宴，席间他极力鼓动这些华尔街人士，向每位到场者募集了35,800美元。尽管几个小时前，他的竞选团队刚刚就米特•罗姆尼经营贝恩资本（Bain Capital）的经历发起了首轮正式抨击——贝恩资本也是一家私募股权公司，与黑石没有什么大不同。真是尴尬！

    虽然奥巴马的一位女发言人谨慎地表示“没人……质疑整个私募股权行业”，但也指出“有理由质疑这样的价值观就是美国人希望在总统身上看到的吗？”是的，私募股权公司，奥巴马没有质疑你们赚钱的权利。他质疑的是你们是否坚守美国式价值观。

    幸好，奥巴马对贝恩的指责至少是在此次晚宴之前。他本来不可能回避那些依赖举债收购公司的支持者们的提问（有些被收购公司最终倒闭，造成裁员等等）。

    但问题是一位消息人士告诉我说，奥巴马在预先准备好的讲稿中没有具体提到私募股权，问答环节中也没有与会者问到这个问题。

    没搞错？

    我同意奥巴马对于私募股权行业一些普遍做法的指责（特别是举债派息，藉此私募股权公司可以在它们帮助搞垮的公司身上赚钱）。但他周一早间的一些说法很有问题，周一晚间有机会提问者却避而不谈。

    即使这种缄默是出于不想和贵宾起争执，这样的迁就只会让奥巴马在今秋成为比罗姆尼更强有力的候选人。或者，这些私募股权人士只是被奥巴马的善变惊呆了：上一刻奥巴马还在严厉批评他们，下一刻就向他们伸手要钱。这有点像吸引一家公司接受杠杆收购时的甜言蜜语，结果可能会让公司分文不名。

    无论怎样，已错失良机。对于任何人，都是如此。

    译者：早稻米

    President Obama last night spent time at the Park Avenue apartment of Blackstone Group (BX) president Tony James, to press the Wall Street flesh and collect $35,800 per plate. It came just hours after his campaign launched its first formal attack on Mitt Romney's record running Bain Capital -- a private equity firm not terribly dissimilar from Blackstone. Talk about awkward!

    While an Obama spokeswoman had been careful to say "no one is... questioning private equity as a whole," she also added that "it's legitimate to question whether those are the values America needs in a president." That's right private equiteers: Obama isn't questioning your right to make money. He's questioning your adherence to American values.

    To his credit, at least Obama's Bain bomb came before the dinner. That way, he wouldn't be able to avoid questions from supporters who happen to make their living by using massive amounts of debt to acquire companies (some of which fail, causing layoffs, etc.).

    But here's the thing: A source tells me that not only did Obama not specifically mention private equity during his prepared remarks, but none of the attendees asked about it during a question-and-answer session.

    Seriously?

    Look, I agree with some of Obama's broader critiques of private equity (particularly of dividend recaps, whereby PE firms can profit on companies they help destroy). But he made some very questionable claims yesterday morning, and no one called him on it when given the chance last night.

    Even if such reticence was born of not wanting to fight with the guest of honor, such give-and-take could only make Obama a stronger candidate vs. Romney come the fall. Or maybe the private equity faithful were simply awe-struck by how Obama could bash them one moment, and take their money the next. Kind of like sweet-talking a company into a leveraged buyout that might later leave it penniless.

    Either way, it was an opportunity lost. For everybody.