today, steve ratner with this about the ad. "i think the ad is unfair.",000 jobs but to make profit for investors. it did it su pushily well. so yeah, to pick out someone who lost their job. that is part of capitalism and life and i don't think anything bain capital did they should be embarrassed about. the panel. tucker carlson of dail dailycaller.com. mara liasson of national public radio and charles krauthammer. what do you think? >> they should hire steve ratner at the romney campaign. >> this is a tough ad. this raises the core question that gingrich raised, how is it that you bought a company, that company failed. its workers became unemployed and you made money? how did you profit from failure? there is an answer. but they can't ignore it. >> this is romney's central claim to the presidency who says i can do for the country what i did for the company i invest in. people are making record profits. but jobs are not created. he does have to make an argument. when they ran against each other in massachusetts. >> in the dop primary. >> it's not the -- >

. >> and joining me now to speak for himself, president obama's former auto czar, steve ratner who was featured as you saw in that ad. steve, you have an op-ed in today's "new york times" trying to explain in a more coherent way, not a five-second sound bite put in a republican ad what you really believe about private equity, bain capital and the pros and cons of had argue. >> that's what i was trying to do in the times today. my point is simply, i was in private equity for nearly a decade. private equity is a perfectly respectable part of our financial system. it adds value to our economy. it does help the capitalistic system to function but it is not a job creation goal. it is not -- people who go into private equity don't go in saying i want to create jobs but to make returns for investors. i wanted to make sure i laid that out clearly. >> many people believe what romney has done in claiming he is a job creator and that is his record from bain capital is as you point out, silly and contradictory because bain capital was not in business to create jobs. they were in business to make m

steve ratner is the former auto czar.ost office today and some of the changes they are making. you made a really good point offset. >> my point is if we can't get together as a country and agree to cut the costs of the post office when mail volumes are dropping dramatically and people are getting so much more of communication via e-mail and electronically, how are we going to deal with a $1.3 trillion deficit? the post office is imbsymbolic the problem, nobody is willing to have it in their back yard. 70% of tea party members do not want to see medicare cut. here you have a group of people who are committed to addressing the budget deficit but 70% of their people don't want to cut medicare, which is the biggest problem in the budget deficit. >> even during the auto bailout, the number of dealerships that were set to be closed -- how many finally were closed? was there some backtracking? >> yes. and i'll tell you exactly why, joe, it's exactly the point, the same point. the only time -- the only time that congress got invo

steve ratner spoke it the way it is earlier why you pointed that out. more importantly, cory booker is the guy that is saving newark, new jersey, crime rates are plummeting. he's a guy that was democrat and out in force for senator obama when he was running for president, helped him get elected and went and said something very smart. he said don't attack private equity. there are a lot of states that rely on private equity investments for jobs, for investments in his state. he was smart and all of a sudden, this retraction that came on you tube a couple of hours later, did he have that look of uh-oh, what did i do? did i let the cat out of the bag? what's the question? is he looking for a job in the white house, is he looking for a cabinet position in the white house? why walk it back, then? >> i don't know. >> survival in the democratic party because he was a rising star. but this is the way he was being assessed by some democrats last night which is he said what he said for selfish reasons, number one because he took campaign donations from bain and o

there are people out there, including corey booker and steve ratner, his car czar and harold ford junior another democrat that says don't make it about that. they may see a divide in the party if they want to go forward with it as it is. >> kimberly: get to greg and then bob bats clean-up. >> greg: the real hero here is me. [ laughter ] i stayed away. it was tough. i feel bad for "the five" viewers waiting for us. i got to stay away. also, it's pakistan, not pakistan. >> sorry. >> greg: he said the summit was unprecedented which he says about everything he does. it's unprecedented. what is precedented? i'm not sure. when he said that thing about it's romney, if all you care about is making a profit, then that is not what this job is about. that's not what being president is about, making a profit. but it should be! because if you could make a profit you could afford the problems that could bankrupt our country. maybe you should think about trying to make a profit. >> kimberly: bob, what do you think? he seems to have hit all the points and he came out of this pretty clean. >> bob: let me

it started with the president's former car czar steve ratner challenging the ad. another high profile ally of the president publicly condemning the bain capital campaign. corey booker lashed out at the strategy going so far as to call it nass kwraeuting. >> from a very personal level i'm not about to sit here and indict private equity. we are getting to a ridiculous point in america, especially i know i live in a state where pension funds, unions and other people investing in companies like bain capital. if you look at the totality of bain capital's record they've done a lot to support businesses and grow businesses and this to me i'm very unfor thible to me. this kind of stuff is nauseating to mow on both sides. it's nauseating to the american public. enough is enough. stop attacking private equity, stop attacking jeremiah wright, this stuff has got to stop. shannon: here for a fair & balanced debate, brad blakeman and dic dick harpootlin. >> this made we very happy. mayor pwaoerbg is certainly not a tea party person, he's mayor of an inner-city, newark, new jers

. >> let me go to steve ratner, i have known you awhile and you work closely with politicians as a reporter and a political contributor and a man close to a lot of them and the business people, you're in business yourself up there in new york. there has been a reason why business-types, and i don't mind using the frame like romney, and i don't just mean private equity, but business leaders have not made great presidents. you can pick the press an the people you want to talk to, politicians have to swim in a world of people and be involved in a lot of people not directly involved in making money for them. >> there's no question about there. they are different sets of skills. i think you articulated it pretty well. if you're ceo, you have to deal with employees and legislatures. and the record of business people going to washington, treasury secretaries and other jobs, it's mixed, most are used to the command in control ceo approach, and it is quite different. >> let me ask you about bain, and he did, mark is smart, he shifted quickly away from it to obama, and he said i can't give you a whol

not just cory booker but people like harold ford and steve ratner -- >> dana: we could go on but we havego. coming up, the election heard across the country. listen to this. >> you will not disrespect the president of the united states in this classroom. greg will have something on that, because a teacher is taught a lesson of her own. that's next on "the five." >> greg: last week a north carolina teacher scolded a student for criticizing president obama, warning he could be arrested. it started when tanya dixon nearly brought up the romney bullying incident and a student responded "didn't obama bully someone, though?" the social studies teacher went off on the kid like dana does when the waiter is late with her appletini. roll tapee. >> that is disrespectful. >> you're disrespecting romney. >> greg: wow! sounds like an entertaining version of "the view." i must hear more. >> greg: i'm so glad i'm old. i guess you forgot about the first amendment. the hyphenated heroine has been suspended but she deserves more i'm announcing the immediately deserved instructor offer tenure award. i give

. >> eric: this ones that matt rer steve ratner, the mayors and the governors matter. ceos of the city and state. private equity is important cash infusion and important to the economy. important job creators. i think the democrat who are governors and mayors are going to push back from president obama disdain for bain. going forward they will real iz it will bite them in the butt. >> bob: we said over and over we don't have a problem with private capital. the problem with ban is romney said he should be president of the united states. he said he made jobs. i still say -- >> eric: >> overtalk ] >> bob: it's not criteria to become the president of the united states. i want to hear him say something about what he did in massachusetts. governor of massachusetts four years. do you think he ever said anything about massachusetts? >> dana: he talks about massachusetts quite a bit, actually. >> bob: on what? >> dana: on the school turn-around. on the job market situation that he inherited. then on the bain stuff, if you look at dade brooks who's a columnist for the "new york

not just cory booker but people like harold ford and steve ratner -- >> dana: we could go on but we have to go. coming up, the election heard across the country. listen to this. >> you will not disrespect the president of the united states in this classroom. greg will have something on that, because a teacher is taught a lesson of her own. that's next on "the five." i've worked hard to build my family. and also to build my career. so i'm not about to always let my frequent bladder urges, or the worry my pipes might leak get in the way of my busy lifestyle. that's why i take care, with vesicare. once-daily vesicare can help control your bladder muscle and is proven to treat overactive bladder with sympts of frequent urges and leaks day and night. if you have certain stomach or glaucoma problems, or trouble emptying your bladder, do not take vesicare. vesicare may cause allergic reactions that may be serious. if you experience swelling of the face, lips, throat or tongue, stop taking vesicare and get emergency help. tell your doctor right away if you have severe abdominal pain, or become c

. >> yes, so what is nauseating, in the words of cory booker unfair in terms of steve ratner your good-- >> who did the op-ed today that said the president is correct in saying that bain is fair became. and the first job at bain is to create a profit. when he went to massachusetts and turned massachusetts 47 out of 50. do we want to be 47th out of 50 count thinks in the world in job creation? >> no. >> the problem with the bain attack is those jobs were let go two years after romney left bain. so the guy that actually was there when those cuts were made wasn't even running it -- it's just like rick snyder does something this fall and blames you for it two years after you left. >> i got to break for time. it's just the job description of somebody who runs a private equity firm is not to create jobs. but hang on, after the break, duf is going to tell us why all of the smart money in california is going to go to mitt romney, and christine is going to correct him. direct line to jennifer granholm. >>our goal is to bring you behind the scenes with access to stories that you've never seen be

steve ratner said only professionals should be playing with stocks.t does an individual know about any company? would you repair the electrical wiring in your company? an individual should be in index funds. they should not be deciding whether pfizer is better than p and g or anything else. they should be in index funds. >> well, i don't disagree on the index funds. but staying away from personal stocks? really? >> we think investors should begin the process. 80% of your success starts with saving money. we think it's very important that people put money in their 401(k) and make sure to take advantage of the company match. the question what you do with the money, it's much more important that you start and save. >> what about individual stocks? do you think they they have the wherewithal to pick stocks? >> i think most people ask for advice. >> i think we were completing an era wherebying individual stocks was highly correlated and the markets went nowhere but valuations where they are, the fact that professional managers tend to buy only good names,

steve ratner was president obama car czar who called that ad unfair. the guy on the left.y james, also called that ad, unfair. the guy on the right, lavine. jonathan lavnef i'm not mistaken is a director at bain capital. a bundler for president obama. take a listen. >> i think the ad is unfair. so, yeah, i do think to pick out an example of somebody who lost their job unfortunately, this is part capitalism. and part of life. i don't think there is something that bain capital did they need to be embarrassed about. >> eric: obama czar. >> bob: that is a hedge fund operator that makes money off of bain capital, destroyed companies and jobs. for ratner to say that and use it as an example is irresponsible. it's just, it is just -- >> dana: but like bain capital couldn't survive if they didn't make investments that ended up being good and companies succeeded? how have they been in business all this time? >> bob: this company, they went away with $7 million in profit. >> dana: venture capital firm, they don't just go to destroy. they create. if you have a business that is about

and then steve ratner. >> people were terrified. stock market was hitting new lows every day until march of 2009, and there was simply no private capital that had any interest in coming in and financing these companies whether it was inside bankruptcy, or the dip financing through bankruptcy. there just was not any money. and i would suggest that if governor romney theres there was money, he should give us an idea of where it was, because i never saw it. >> once the laughter must have subsided at the white house, they had this to say. this is ben labolt responding to romney. >> i told you. i told cenk anyway that the etch-a-sketch would not go away as long as mitt romney is a candidate and nominee the etch-a-sketch will remain. there is more from labolt: >> and later tonight, jennifer grandholm will be hosting "the war room" here on current tv. she was a former governor of michigan. i can't think of anybody who would be more expert on talking about this than jennifer grandholm. so you should watch "the war room" today. speaking of e

even the president's former top economic adviser, steve ratner, who came from the auto industry called this ad unfair. it is. it's worse than that because it's an indication of the president's world view. you wonder why the business community is not generating jobs and jobs are being oppressed in -- and jobs are being is up pressed in the obama economy it's because they're sitting on their cash because they don't trust president obama. he's so anti-business. there won't be a surge in hiring in this country as long as obama is sitting in the white house. he in this ad is expressing what he thinks about the private sector at large. that's the problem with it. he'll raise money. if you're for president obama, it'll give you a pass. if you're against president obama and you're the private sector, he attacks you. the fact of the matter is everybody in the private sector has created some jobs and they've lost some jobs. sometimes people get laid off from work. other days you hire more people. this has been the dynamic that makes america great. barack obama will only attack anybody if they ev

steve ratner, harold ford, governor rendell, each going after romney saying he's dead wrong. they're goingover the job-killing history with bain capital. governor ed rendell along with new york magazine's john haloman. an e-mail lists six democrats saying they're tired of free enterprise. an excerpt reads as follows. rendell joined the course of criticism over obama's attacks on finance, whose leaders have written checks to many members of both parties. i think they're very disappointing, rendell said of the ads, attacking bain. i think bain is fair game because romney has made it fair game, but i think how you examine it, the tone, what you say is important as well. governor rendell, big question. are you with the obama campaign as it's being run right now or are you against it? >> well, either/or. right now i'd like to see the president -- i think he's done a good job, chris, and you and i discussed it. i'd like to see him emphasize the terrific things he's done for the country under different circumstances. and the ad himself, of course he has the right to go after governo

here now is cnbc contributor, former auto czar steve ratner, who wrote an op-ed in today's "new york times" and with us romney backer and owns a restaurant chain and also lars. let's take a listen to something else on our sister network msnbc last week. >> bain capital's responsibility was not to create 100,000 jobs or some other jobs, it was to make profits for investors, most pension funds and endowments. it did it very well, acting within the rules and i do think to pick out a example of somebody who lost their job unfortunately, this is part of capitalism, part of life and i don't think there's anything bain capital did they need to be embarrassed about. >> in the segment you called the ad unfair. in today's "new york times" you said mr. obama struck the right balance. which is it? i don't understand. >> what i said in that op-ed today was on monday when the president spoke in chicago after this uproar last week, he struck the right balance. so i think he's attempting to clarify the point in the following sense, he is not against private equity. i don't believe he is. if i though

so it's cory booker, steve ratner, but he cannot be ridden.ming mitt romney's position on bain will be i can't remember what i did, but i stand by what i did whatever that was. >> he's happy to take credit for any successes, but as soon as you start to talk about any of the failures, any of the things that went wrong, oh, that's off limits. we're not allowed to talk about that, right? and the president is exactly on point here. i think to what david just said, not only did he up the ante, not only did he really focus in on what the problem is and why this is so important, but he did it in a very measured way that didn't seem nasty. you know, it made sense to people. it was logical. >> he made the point that i am not disparaging private equity, i'm not writing off a whole sector of the economy, i'm not attacking people who work in these sectors. >> right. >> i'm actually saying that people are as or more important than profit. >> that's exactly right, and if you're going to be president, you're going to be president of everyone, and if you're r

that's -- >> i think today in the times, steve ratner has the editorial that tried to explain what the right line is for the obama administration, which is not that private equity is blanketly bad, but that in fact the record of working in private equity that romney has is not a good preparation 0 run the whole country. >> not about the job creation. >> they have to be able to go after bain, not private equity, not capitalism and not business. they have to be very careful in the way they're attacking this and boil it down to this is all because of mitt romney as a person, not because of all these other pieces that fall into play. >> paraphrasing game of thrones, the nights is dark and full of terrors. >> is mitt romney better suited to sar in the west wing or our town? we'll ask the legendary james lipton when he joins the panel next on "now." ♪ it was the best day [ whooping ] ♪ it was the best day ♪ it was the best day ♪ ♪ it was the best day ♪ 'cause of you we make a great pair. huh? progressive and the great outdoors! we make a great pair. right, totally. that's what i was thinking

argue and say, well, without that cash it would have happened any way and the obama team including steve ratnersn't a nickel of private financing available to do that, but the strongest evidence for the fact that obama has the hiends sight of this argument is the fact that president bush who was in office when mitt romney wrote that editorial in the new york times in november 2008 also decided they needed the bridge loan. what you have is romney trying to go after both ends of that formulation. not easy to pull that off. >> one of the things that's still an open question about this it ration of the romney campaign is whether or not they acknowledge previous statements by the candidate that seem to contradict current statements or whether ta pretend those older things went away. on the bin laden thing, do they wrangle at all with the fact that mr. romney was asked would you overrule the leadership in pakistan or go behind their back and he said absolutely not. i wouldn't do that. that would be a horrible mistake. do they wrangle with that at all or hope it's lost? >> they wrangle with it a littl

. >> harold junior and steve ratner, both of them have spoken out against attacks on bain capital. republicans are working overtime to make any attacks on bain capital seem unreasonable. it's because they know that the attacks are absolutely true. an unnamed gop aide told huffington post sam stein, booker is a huge plus for us. ampad should have been a clean hit for them. now it's totally muddy. romney knew he had to do something about bain capital. last week he was comparing the reverend wright attacks to the obama ads about bain. >> the purpose of the president's ads are not to describe success and failure but somehow to suggest that i'm not a good person or not a good guy. and having the campaign focused on character assassination is one of the things i find offensive. >> oh, this is where cory booker took the bait. there is no comparison between reverend wright attacks on the president and mitt romney's actual record at bain capital as an executive. an obama adviser david axelrod explained why romney is running away from his past. >> he never talks about his years as massachuse

. >> what do you say to steve ratner who was in the administration.e on "morning joe" made the same point that the business of this kind of bain capital and what these funds do is to take over companies, some win, some lose. they're in the business of not creating jobs but of creating money for their shareholders. >> that's the case that mitt romney's been making. >> mitt romney was making the case as ratner pointed out inappropriately and inaccurately that he was supposed to be creating jobs. that's not what they do. but is it fair to attack them for a company that went bankrupt perhaps after he left? >> he was still the ceo of bain when that bankruptcy was filed. so it's not fair. he takes credit for everything that happened after he left that he considers positive and tries to walk away from this. he can't walk away from this. he was there when they loaded this company with debt and when they filed for bankruptcy. he shared in the proceeds of that when they made money even as workers lost not just their jobs but also their retirement benefits. and

steve ratner is obviously a very well known capitalist himself. at the end of the day, it is probably interesting and interesting for a lot of political insiders. i suspect most people who are deciding whether romney is fit to be president are basing on their own pocket books and be what any one person's endorsement would be. >>> the "wall street journal" finds that romney's bain capital record, 8% loss. all the company they went in to say. 22% filed for bankruptcy rerk organize or closed their doofrls 70% produced gains. you juxtapose that against these steel work here's say they came in and raided our company. what do you make of the ad and its fairness? >> first the "wall street journal" is 70% gains in the value of the company. >> what does that mean? >> not 70% gains in employment and work worse. secondly, it doesn't really matter whether these ads are fair. it matters whether they're effective and whether they're true. in my view, both those criteria are met by this. there were people laid off and this is not the nature of turning around a c

it your view that romney is permanently responsible for those job losses at a steel mill, and steve ratnercized this, and -- three parts, mr. president -- could you give us your sense of just what private equity's role is on stemming job losses as they seek an investment from their investors? thank you. >> first of all, i think cory booker is an outstanding mayor. he's doing a great job in newark and helping to turn that city around. and i think it's important to recognize that this issue is not a, quote, distraction, this is part of the debate that we're going to be having in this election campaign about how too we create an economy that everybody, top to bottom, folks on wall street and folks on main street have a chance at success. if they're working hard and they're acting responsibly, that they're able to live out the american dream. now, i think my view of private equity is that it is set up to maximize profits. that's a healthy part of the free market. that's part of the role of a lot of business people that's not unique to private equity. as i think my representatives have said rep

>> i watched the interview this morning on morning joe when steve ratner who was at the table called in and explained all of this and it makes perfect sense to me to hear him tell it that there just were not any funding alternatives beyond the government. that's why it was necessary for the bailout as part of the managed bankruptcy and that's the part that governor romney isn't sharing with this explanation. >> this is another portion of the op he had, a.b., from romney. it says if general motors, ford and chrysler get the bailout you can kiss the american auto industry goodbye. it won't go over night. its demise will be virtually guaranteed. let me peninsulalay what ted st left-hand that to say. obviously he supports the president. >> romney talked about remembering a parade that happened years before he was born. he falsely claimed that his dad marched with martin luther king. he lied about his hunting record and about the guns he didn't own. mitt romney's hi pock increase seems to know no bounds. >> does he need to explain this or give better clarification? we're talking abo clari