Romney Defends Bain Role, Wants Obama Apology

Mitt Romney went on the offensive in a big way today over his tenure at Bain, giving a series of TV interviews to insist that he stopped having any management role in 1999 and to demand that President Obama apologize because of his advisers' "disgusting" attacks on him over the issue. Some of his quotes:

• “"There's nothing wrong with being associated with Bain Capital, of course," he told CNN. "But the truth is that I left any role at Bain Capital in February of 1999."
• So why was he still listed as holding key positions at Bain after that? "I still retained an ownership interest," he said on CBS. "I had the capacity if I were not on leave, if I were actually wanting to run the business to do so, but I did not."
• “There is a difference between being a shareholder, an owner if you will, than a person who is running an entity.”

• "This is simply beneath the dignity of the presidency of the United States," he said on ABC, when asked about an Obama adviser who suggested Romney was guilty of a felony.
• "He really needs to rein in his team and to finally take responsibility for what they're saying," he told Fox News.
• “What kind of a president would have a campaign that says something like that about the nominee of another party?”
• Does Obama owe him an apology? "Absolutely—my goodness!"
• Politico and the AP have roundups.
• Click to read one columnist's view that Romney has changed his story over the years.

(More Mitt Romney 2012 stories.)