In the late 1980s, Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney's Bain Capital opened a plant in
Gaffney, South Carolina ... then closed the plant just a few years later, cutting 150 jobs. South Carolina got layoffs in exchange for the millions in bonds and grants it offered to lure the plant there, while Bain earned $22 million on a $10 million investment. So what do
people in Gaffney think about this?
A newspaper story is hardly a scientific poll, but Tampa Bay Times reporter Alex Leary's report may be troubling for Romney, in that even people who started with the "capitalism is not to be criticized" Republican line were also troubled by the details of what happened in their town:
"They may have thought they were going to do well and then didn't do well and took the money and ran. That's not totally right, but that is capitalism," said Lewis Dase, a 64-year-old retired government worker.
Still, he said it was wrong if the company exploited the community's generosity in the form of incentives.
"If he made a lot of money off it when it closed, that's not right," Dase said as he ate lunch at a diner down the road from the former plant, now owned by the Bic pen manufacturer.
Another man echoed the question about how much Bain made from the deal, saying, "I'd have to know it was 10 million or 1 million the company made when the plant closed."
More than $10 million, actually.
For Romney, of course, the danger isn't just that the residents of Gaffney will find out exactly how much he made off their misery, but that what happened in this one South Carolina town will bring it home to others in the state just what Romney's jobs record really is.