GOP debate: Romney fights back at attacks over Bain

By Jonathan Easley - 01/19/12 09:50 PM ET

Mitt Romney stuck back at his opponents when they attacked on his record at Bain Capital, turning the attacks back on his rivals.

His tenure at the venture capital firm has come under repeated fired on the campaign trail and in the presidential debates. He fired back at that during Thursday night's presidential debate.

“I find it kind of strange on a stage like this with Republicans having to describe how private equity and venture capital work and how they’re successful and how they create jobs,” Romney said.

He then ticked off the success stories at Bain, saying those created 120,000 jobs while the failed companies referenced by rival Newt Gingrich only lost about 10,000 jobs.

He also defended the massive wealth his company created, which has been closely tied to criticism of Romney as being out of touch with ordinary Americans.

“There’s nothing wrong with profit, by the way,” he said. “That profit went to pension funds, it went to charities, it went to a wide array of institutions…I’m going to stand and defend capitalism throughout this country, throughout this campaign, and I know we’re going to get hit hard from President Obama, but we’re going to stuff it down his throat that it is capitalism that makes America strong.”

Several of the GOP contenders have been criticized for waging attacks on Romney that his critics say are liberal, anti-capitalist arguments that will be adopted by the Obama campaign.

But they still criticized the former Massachusetts governor.

“I think there are specific cases where Bain Capital’s model, which was to take over a company and dramatically leverage it with a great deal of debt, made it less likely to survive,” Gingrich said.

And Rick Santorum did his best to remind voters that Romney was part of an elite group that most Americans will never know.

“I believe in capitalism too,” he said. “Not necessarily for high finance, but for the men and women of this country who are out there battling alone in America right now, who have an unemployment rate two and a half times those that are college educated and feel that no party cares about them.”