David McElroy

Barack Obama seems determined to make profit a dirty word. In attacking Mitt Romney’s business background, he’s making it clear that he has contempt for the free market that created the long-term national prosperity that he’s spent nearly four years helping to destroy.

Speaking in Iowa Thursday, Obama spoke of private equity firms — such as Bain Capital, Romney’s former company — as having motives other than job creation, as though that’s a bad thing.

“The people who work in these firms will tell you [job creation is] not their goal,” Obama said. He added that the companies’ goal is “maximizing short-term gains for your investors. There may be value for that type of experience but it’s not in the White House.”

Let’s review this. It’s business that generates the wealth of the nation on a long-term basis. Right now, business is in serious trouble, partly because of mistakes made by the business community, but even more so because of government interference that’s destroying the economy and manipulating markets. And even though the country desperately needs business to rebound and start growing again — as Obama would be the first to admit — he is clueless enough to claim it’s a liability for a presidential candidate to have experience in the private sector with making money? Is he insane or just dishonest?

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As I was approaching the ramp to get onto I-59 in Birmingham Wednesday, I noticed in my rearview mirror that there was a police car behind me. I don’t know about you, but I start worrying a bit while they’re behind me. Is it past time to renew my tag? Do I have a tail light out? What’s the speed limit on this little road?

I was hoping he wasn’t turning onto the interstate, so I was watching his turn signal in my mirror to see if it came on. It never did — but he turned behind me anyway. Part of the way down the ramp, the asphalt widens, but the lane for the interstate hasn’t started, so you’re supposed to stay on the ramp. He didn’t. Part of the way down the ramp, he floored his engine and went around me, going through the striped lines you’re supposed to stay away from.

In the time I could still see him, he impatiently tailgated a car and then passed it way too close to a car in the other lane. He lost me after that, but it doesn’t really matter what he did. He has a gun and a badge, so he can do whatever he wants.

Have you ever noticed how flagrantly many police officers violate the traffic rules we’re supposed to obey? I routinely see them speeding (without emergency lights), tailgating and failing to use turn signals. There’s one set of rules for us, and there’s another set for them. Is there any wonder that more and more people are losing respect for police?

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Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker committed a mortal political sin Sunday. He dared to tell the truth when that truth didn’t reflect well on his own political party. Predictably, the party establishment was not pleased.

In case you don’t know what the story was about, it’s really fairly simple, but you’ll need a bit of background. There are investment companies called private equity firms which raise money from investors and then spend the money to either invest in early-stage private companies or else find struggling firms to turn around. They place big bets on companies they believe have potential, some new firms and some old firms. When they buy or invest in older companies, though, they’re generally struggling companies that would otherwise go out of business, so their job as investors is to provide investment money and insist that management (usually new management) restructure the business to return to profitability.

It’s not especially complicated and it’s fairly mundane in the business world. Many startups couldn’t happen without investment from this kind of company, and many poorly managed failing businesses would simply go out of business if this kind of company weren’t there to invest and restructure. Normally, nobody talks about these companies other than people in the business world. It’s different this year, though, because Mitt Romney was a long-time partner in a major private equity firm called Bain Capital — and Democrats have decided to make that a campaign issue.

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