Obama national co-chair Pena works in private equity

If the hypocrisy of the left was purchasable on the stock market... I would buy a ton of shares...

One of President Barack Obama’s top campaign spokesmen is a private equity manager whose firm has shut down several factories and laid off hundreds of people amid a stalled economy.

Federico Pena’s role at Vestar Capital Partners has emerged [/b][/i] as Obama’s aides and deputies continue their effort to portray former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney‘s investment career as ruthless, job-destroying, profit-maximizing “vulture capitalism.” Pena has been a partner at Vestar since 2000.

Pena is a former mayor of Denver in swing-state Colorado, a former cabinet member for President Bill Clinton and one of 35 “national co-chairs “ of the president’s 2012 campaign.

The news will likely further undermine the Obama campaign’s effort to focus on Romney’s business practices, rather than Obama’s White House policies, and the resulting debt, deficits and unemployment. [/b][/i]

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/05/24/obama ... z1vt05g5vn

Of course... Vestar is a "good" private equity firm... not a "venture capitalist vampire" like Romney?

In March of 2011, Vestar acquired 100% of Del Monte Foods through a leveraged buyout.

Just two weeks ago, Del Monte announced the closure of a plant in Kingsburg, Califoria, effectively slashing 1,000 jobs. "I am extraordinarily disappointed by Del Monte to make this decision," Kingsburg Mayor Bruce Blayney told the Kingsburg Recorder. "This is a major blow to the local economy."

Roughly eight years ago, Vestar purchased the Solo Cup Company.

According to this 2007 report, Solo Cup Co. (with Vestar as a parent firm) shuttered three U.S. factories. As early as 2010, with Vestar still as the parent company, Solo Cup announced plans to shut an eighty year old factory, ending more than 540 jobs.

In 2002, Vestar acquired frozen food giant BirdsEye Foods.

Roughly four years later, Vestar laid off approximately 500 workers at BirdsEye. "Some of them were employed at Birdseye for 15 to 30 years," according to KGO Ch. 7 in San Fransico.

http://completecolorado.com/stories/Is- ... mpire.html

The bull crap from the left is getting so deep, you Democrats may have to wear boots to a Obama campaign event. Classic leftist hypocrisy.

rofllol crickets.

When did Pena decide to run for president? I must have missed that news item. No one that I know of has suggested that they are bad, or should be shut down, only that they make a lousy training ground for the President of the United States. I expect to see Romney run from his Bain experience just as he has run from his time as governor. Bring on the Olympics...it may be all he has left.

That bad penny Pena is showing up again? Remember how horrible he was as a cabinet secretary?

FredHayek wrote: That bad penny Pena is showing up again? Remember how horrible he was as a cabinet secretary?

Hmmm...maybe the private equity mentality just doesnt play well in public office?

The Liberals GOP Twin wrote: rofllol crickets.

Just curious, but in real life, when you are actually talking to people (not anonymously across a chat forum,) do you taunt them face to face if they don't respond to you?

archer wrote: When did Pena decide to run for president? I must have missed that news item. No one that I know of has suggested that they are bad, or should be shut down, only that they make a lousy training ground for the President of the United States. I expect to see Romney run from his Bain experience just as he has run from his time as governor. Bring on the Olympics...it may be all he has left.

So... they also make lousy "training ground" for campaign co-chairs like Pena? Where did I say anything about Obama saying they should be shut down? Romney is not running from his Bain experience. And don't tell me Obama never said anything bad about equity firms...

"Their priority is to maximize profits," Obama said during a news conference after the NATO summit in Chicago. "And that's not always going to be good for communities or businesses or workers."

http://content.usatoday.com/communities ... 7-4qiqtP7c

But those equity firms are evidently good for Pena, for Obama's campaign contributions, for many politicians, for public and private unions investment portfolios and multitude of private companies investment portfolios. It is hypocrisy at the highest order for Obama to make the above statement when there is so much money being handed around from the profits of an equity firm. Equity firms are structured to make the most of their investments, and there is ALWAYS going to be someone or some company who is going to take a hit.

That's the way equity firms work. And that's the way all of these investors and politicians above have realized profits and favorable returns from these firms. There's a good chance that YOU have benefited from equity firms profits. Sorry... Obama can't have it both ways.

Kate wrote:

The Liberals GOP Twin wrote: rofllol crickets.

Just curious, but in real life, when you are actually talking to people (not anonymously across a chat forum,) do you taunt them face to face if they don't respond to you?

Just curious... do you lie to people, to their face like you do on this forum? Either that, or you are just a lap dog for the left, parroting talking points without even checking for their validity or truthfulness. Yes... when I am debating someone, face to face, over a heated issue I will question their silence. This is a forum Kate... not church on Sunday.

Crickets?

No... "Who cares?" would be more like it...

Nobody said that P.E. was a bad thing. The way Romney and Bain practiced it was reprehensible, and taking credit for jobs created after you were out of the picture, while running away from jobs and contracts you destroyed while you WERE there, is despicable. He lies about being a "job creator" when it wasn't about jobs--it was about creating wealth for the investors. That's not a qualification for POTUS. And if he wants to try to use that as a talking-point, it's fair game.

God, I love the IGNORE function...

LadyJazzer wrote: Crickets?

No... "Who cares?" would be more like it...

Nobody said that P.E. was a bad thing. The way Romney and Bain practiced it was reprehensible, and taking credit for jobs created after you were out of the picture, while running away from jobs and contracts you destroyed while you WERE there, is despicable. He lies about being a "job creator" when it wasn't about jobs--it was about creating wealth for the investors. That's not a qualification for POTUS. And if he wants to try to use that as a talking-point, it's fair game.

God, I love the IGNORE function...

Obama said a P.E. is a bad thing...

"Their priority is to maximize profits," Obama said during a news conference after the NATO summit in Chicago. "And that's not always going to be good for communities or businesses or workers."

http://content.usatoday.com/communities ... 7-4qiqtP7c

But those equity firms are evidently good for Pena, for Obama's campaign contributions, for many politicians, for public and private unions investment portfolios and multitude of private companies investment portfolios. It is hypocrisy at the highest order for Obama to make the above statement when there is so much money being handed around from the profits of an equity firm. Equity firms are structured to make the most of their investments, and there is ALWAYS going to be someone or some company who is going to take a hit.

That's the way equity firms work. And that's the way all of these investors and politicians above have realized profits and favorable returns from these firms. There's a good chance that YOU have benefited from equity firms profits. Sorry... Obama can't have it both ways.

The hypocrisy of the left is a bad thing.