Romney Campaign Press Release - Conservative Reaction to Attacks on Mitt Romney and Free Enterprise

"Presidential candidate Rick Perry's criticism of Mitt Romney's business past has cost him the support of a prominent South Carolina Republican. Investment fund executive and top GOP donor Barry Wynn told The Associated Press Thursday that he's leaving the Perry fold to endorse Romney. Wynn says he was irritated by Perry's attacks on Romney's time at the helm of the private equity firm Bain Capital. As Wynn put it, 'It's like fingernails on the chalkboard.'" (The Associated Press, 1/12/12)

The Wall Street Journal: "About the best that can be said about the Republican attacks on Mitt Romney's record at Bain Capital is that President Obama is going to do the same thing eventually ... Yet that hardly absolves Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry and others for their crude and damaging caricatures of modern business and capitalism. Politics isn't subtle, and these candidates are desperate, but do they have to sound like Michael Moore?" (Editorial, "The Bain Capital Bonfire," The Wall Street Journal, 1/11/12)

National Review: "[T]o abominate Mitt Romney for having been a success at the business of investing in struggling American companies, connecting entrepreneurs with capital and producers with markets, is foolish and destructive. Republicans ought to know better, and the fact that Gingrich et al. apparently do not is the most disturbing commentary on the state of the primary field so far." (Editorial, "Romney's Profitable Past," National Review, 1/10/12)

The Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin: "Regardless of his intentions, Gingrich ... has embarked in an anti-Bain, anti-Romney vendetta that is widely scorned in his own party." (Jennifer Rubin, "Gingrich And His Backer Are Bruised By The Anti-Bain Attacks," The Washington Post, 1/12/12)

Rush Limbaugh: "You have to say that Newt and Perry blew it the last two days. I don't care what you think, folks, the attacks that they mounted on Romney are not defensible. ... I'm sorry, folks, that is indefensible. There's no way you can try to dress that up. I don't understand it. Well, politically I understand it, but that's just absurd. It's sad. ... This is the language of leftists like Michael Moore and Oliver Stone. ... This is not conservatism. It's the polar opposite of conservatism. It's the language used to take away economic freedom." (RushLimbaugh.com, 1/11/12)

Americans for Prosperity President Tim Phillips: "The American people deserve a vigorous campaign of contrasts on the records of candidates and their policy proposals, not heavy-handed, populist tinged attacks on free enterprise. ... [W]e are disappointed to see attacks from some Republican presidential candidates on Mitt Romney and Bain Capital, which sink to the level of some of the worst anti-free market, class envy politics constantly pushed by the Obama Administration and those in the Occupy camps." (Americans For Prosperity, Press Release, 1/11/12)

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani: "I'm outraged ... I'm shocked what they're doing. It's ignorant, dumb. It's building something we should be fighting in America, ignorance of the economic system, playing on the dumbest, most ridiculous ideas about how you grow jobs. ... What they're doing to Mitt right now is totally unfair and bad for the Republican Party. ... What the hell are you doing, Newt? I expect this from Saul Alinsky. This is what Saul Alinsky taught Barack Obama, and what you're saying is part of the reason we're in so much trouble right now." (Tim Mak, "Rudy Giuliani: Newt Gingrich Acting Like Saul Alinsky," Politico, 1/12/12)

Senator John McCain: "To go after [Romney] on really what is the essence of what we Republicans believe in about [the] economy, I think is a serious mistake and frankly I think it's the last resort of a very desperate campaign." (Fox News' "Fox & Friends," 1/12/12)

Governor Nikki Haley: "I am baffled by the fact that we are putting the free market on trial here. I'm concerned for my party. The free market's what we fight for." (Jim Rutenberg and Jeff Zeleny, "Republican Rivals Batter Romney in South Carolina," The New York Times, 1/11/12)