Romney's Bain History: What Does It Mean?

While FactCheck.org and Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler originally sided with Mitt Romney's claim that he left Bain Capital in February 1999, Kessler has begun to walk back that position. So we are at an impasse. Because of the ambiguity, there is considerable room for interpretation of known facts. Going forward, unless new evidence emerges, on a case-by-case basis we may withhold the awarding of Pinocchios when the claim rests mostly on the question of when Romney stopped managing Bain Capital. Kessler reports that part of the cause of the lack of clarity on when Romney's tenure at Bain ended has been the refusal of both Romney and Bain to provide clarifying detail. Bottom line, there is mixed evidence on when Romney left Bain Capital, and therefore whether he should be held responsible for jobs sent overseas by Bain companies from 1999 to 2002. However, it is clear that if Romney denies responsibility for outsourced jobs at Bain companies during that period, he should not claim credit for jobs created in Bain companies during the same time. But Romney got out of the game in 1999, which has not stopped his campaign from crediting him with jobs created at those companies since then." --Ballard Burgher