Bain & Political Capital in the 2012 GOP Primary Debates

Mitt Romney’s work at Bain Capital became a centerpiece of the primary campaign in January, 2012. Because its portfolio and practices are so diverse, talking points about Bain were at first unpolished. Such inconsistent and haphazard discussion provided an excellent opportunity to study the refinement of campaign messages to their most politically effective and palatable forms. Furthermore, because private equity is so complex, its net effect is fairly debated—among economists, politicians, and voters alike. Thus, conversations about Bain Capital were often disjointed, allowing politicians a great deal of freedom to frame the issue however they wanted regardless of their opponents’ statements. Value appeal strategies of reconstructing, bypassing, counterblocking, overriding, and undermining, as defined by Cook, are central to this study, which examines the Republican primary debates and the deliberations surrounding Bain Capital as a representation of free market enterprise. The goal of the article is to explore the dynamics of politic debates within primary contests in which there are shared common values.