Now that Romney is the Republican candidate, how do you feel about Bain Capital's ownership of Clearchannel Communications?

It’s a perfect example of the Bain way of operation. Buy a corporation (usually successful). Break it up, to make money on the parts. Sell part of it for big profit.

The other pieces go bankrupt.

This is Romeny’s plan for America. The rich get their money out first, and the rest of the people go bankrupt.

For what it’s worth, I think Romney put his holdings into a blind trust for the duration. I think that means that he has no say in how the business conducts its operations while the holdings are in the blind trust.

I don’t know much about what clear channel does. From my understanding, they are primarily top 40 radio. I’m not sure if they provide much news content, nor what the editorial bent of that news content would be. Like you, I think that companies tend to provide content that attracts the most ears, but whether the provider forms the opinions of the listeners, or whether the listeners influence the provider, I don’t really know. I’m guessing it’s a kind of circular thing. No clear chicken or egg, so-to-speak.

I think this should definitely be a mainstream issue, but it’s probably a minor issue. The economy is still the biggest issue. We can look at Clearchannel to see if they are creating jobs, since that’s one of Romney’s big things. That would be interesting to know—how many jobs has he added to the economy through his takeover efforts. Mostly likely it’s a loss of jobs, though it probably depends on how you analyze it.

But everything’s fair game in a campaign, especially for President. I hope Romney has to defend his record as a business person. But that will be the Obama campaign’s job to make it an issue. We’ll see come October.

I agree with @elbanditoroso . I think that Romney has a Pirate’s mind-set.

@wundayatta According to a blind trust authority, Mitt Romney, a blind trust doesn’t mean much. Here’s Etch-a-Sketch talking about blind trusts back when the truth wasn’t inconvenient. SOmehow, his blind trust just happened to invest in a business his Son just started. Pure coincidence, I guess.~

But as to Clear Channel Communications, they are a heavy contributor to right-wing causes and Republican politicians. I think you can count on their backing a zombie if he’s on the Republican ticket.

You realize of course that Romney left Bain almost ten years before this occurred. He has no active part in the management of Bain, let alone Clear Channel. Flame on.

@Jaxk No flames. Just a note that I do realize when Romney left Bain, and that it has no bearing on what I said.