奥巴马总统的连任竞选团队日前将火力集中了在米特•罗姆尼的从商经历上，专门推出了一个网站，着重列出私募股权公司贝恩资本（Bain Capital）在罗姆尼执掌期间进行的一些交易。

    奥巴马竞选团队的副经理斯蒂芬妮•卡特在发出邮件宣布推出这个网站之后表示：

    罗姆尼和其合伙人在美国各地收购公司，收购过程往往让这些公司背负上债务。他们总是大幅缩减养老金、福利和工作岗位，用积累的债务直接付给自己和股东。

    由于这些债务，有几家公司已经破产，工人失去了工作，没有了养老金，也没有了医保——而罗姆尼及其合伙人总是能将数百万美金收入囊中。

    每个人都知道业务会有起伏——有时还会遭遇失败——没人质疑罗姆尼按自认方式经营公司的权利，也没人质疑整个私募股权行业。

    但造成数千人失业、原本健康的企业破产，只为少数人大赚一笔，这个时候就需要质疑——这样的价值观就是美国人希望在总统身上看到的吗？这些价值观能建立起一个可持续的经济和支撑起强大、有保障的中产阶级吗？

    网站目前重点关注贝恩资本的三项交易：GST Steel、Dade Industries和Stage Stores。

    不幸的是，就像今年早些时候支持共和党候选人纽特•金里奇的SuperPAC发布的“纪录片”，奥巴马的竞选团队也有一些可疑的细节问题。比如，它是这么说Dade Behring的：

    米特•罗姆尼和他的投资者接手了Dade Behring这家业务健康的公司后，让它背上了沉重债务。他们没有卖掉这家公司，而是让Dade背负更多贷款买下他们的股票，将公司推入破产深渊。近3,000名工人失业，罗姆尼及其合伙人却赚取超过2.5亿美元利润。

    我不知道定性为“健康公司”是基于什么。2004年，贝恩以4.48亿美元收购Baxter International旗下的医疗诊断业务，创立了Dade International。当时，这就是一个失败的业务部门。比如，MLA当时刚刚取消了同Dade的一大宗血液分析仪/试剂供应协议。Dade不仅丧失了一大块高利润的经常性收入，还多了MLA这样一个有力的竞争对手（贝恩最终在日本找到了替代供应商）。

    我能想到的就是奥巴马竞选团队巧妙地选用了Dade Behring这个名字，这是Dade International成立两年后改用的名字，是在Bain收购一家德国公司（Behring）和一项杜邦（DuPont）诊断业务之后。你也许会说，那时来看，Dade曾是一家“健康的公司”——但这全赖贝恩之赐。而且，有些“利润”是与收购Behring相关的现金。

    先申明一点，正如我过去所述，我并不支持贝恩在Dade所做的一切。但奥巴马竞选团队也没有任何理由往这个事情上添油加醋。

    President Obama's reelection campaign today took its most pointed shots at Mitt Romney's business career, launching a website that focuses on select Bain Capital deals from Romney's time running the private equity firm.

    Stephanie Cutter, Obama's deputy campaign manager, said the following in an email announcing the site:

    Romney and his partners bought companies across the United States, often loading them up with debt in the process. Too often, they slashed pensions, benefits, and jobs, while paying themselves and their shareholders straight from the debt they'd accumulated.

    Because of that debt, several of these businesses went bankrupt, leaving workers without jobs, without pensions, and without health care -- all while Romney and his partners walked away with millions.

    Everyone understands that businesses rise and fall -- and sometimes fail -- and no one is challenging Romney's right to run his business as he saw fit or questioning private equity as a whole.

    But when a handful of people make a fortune by putting thousands out of work and bankrupting once-healthy businesses, it's legitimate to question whether those are the values America needs in a president -- and whether those are the values that will create an economy built to last, with a strong, secure middle class.

    The website currently focuses on three Bain Capital transations: GST Steel, Dade Industries and Stage Stores.

    Unfortunately, somewhat like the "documentary" distributed earlier this year by a SuperPAC supporting Newt Gingrich, the Obama campaign gets a bit bedeviled by certain details.

    For example, look at what it says about Dade Behring:

    With Dade Behring, Mitt Romney and his investors took over a healthy company and loaded it with debt. Rather than sell the company, they then had Dade take out even more loans to buy out their shares, driving the company into bankruptcy. Nearly 3,000 workers lost their jobs, while Romney and his partners made more than $250 million in profit.

    I have no idea where the "healthy company" characterization is coming from. Bain originally created Dade International in 2004, by purchasing the medical diagnostics business of Baxter International (BAX) for $448 million. At the time, it was a failing unit. For example, MLA had just canceled a large blood analyzer/reagents supply contract with Dade. Not only did this cost Dade a large chunk of high-profit, recurring revenue, but it also set MLA up as a viable competitor (Bain ultimately found a replacement supplier in Japan).

    All I can think is that the Obama campaign cleverly used the name Dade Behring, which is what Dade International was renamed two years later once Bain had acquired both a German company (Behring) and a diagnostics unit from DuPont. One could argue that, by that point, Dade was a "healthy company" -- but only thanks to Bain's efforts. Moreover, some of those "profits" were cash tied to the Behring acquisition.

    To be clear, I'm not a big fan of what Bain did with Dade, as I've previously written. But there is no reason for the Obama campaign to embellish on the history.