Romney Campaign Officially Freaked Out Over Offshoring Story

The Washington Post published a story June 21 calling Mitt Romney an offshoring "pioneer" while at Bain Capitol, and President Obama's campaign made an ad about that. On Wednesday, six days after the story was published, Romney's campaign is seeking a full retraction from the Post, Politico's Dylan Byers reports.

The Washington Post published a story June 21 calling Mitt Romney an offshoring "pioneer" while at Bain Capitol, and President Obama's campaign made an ad about that. Romney's campaign insisted  Sunday there's a difference between offshoring and outsourcing, and Obama made fun of that, too. On Wednesday, six days after the story was published, Romney's campaign is seeking a full retraction from the Post, Politico's Dylan Byers reports. The campaign is meeting with Post executive editor Marcus Brauchli and other staffers, armed with "defenses for each firm mentioned in the Post's article -- including Chippac, Corporate Software, GT Bicycle, Modus Media, SMTC Corp., and Stream International -- on a case by case basis," Byers writes. The campaign will say the Post misinterpreted Securities and Exchange Commission filings, and did not take into account how foreign hires helped American businesses and exports, Byers notes. Update: Byers reports that the Post will not retract the story.

It's easy to figure out why the Romney campaign doesn't want the story to just fade away like so many others, and instead be totally discredited. Polls released Wednesday suggest that the attacks on Romney's business career have been effective. Voters in swing states are more likely to have an unfavorable view of Romney's Bain résumé than voters nationwide. In response to Obama's Bain criticisms, the Romney campaign has argued that Democrats are attacking success, and that when the Obama administration took over General Motors, it fired people, too. But offshoring seems like an especially touchy subject to voters. Both Obama and Romney have aired ads in Ohio suggesting the other sent jobs to China.

Update: The newspaper won't retract, telling Byers, "We are very confident in our reporting."