Mitt Romney's 'big lie' on Bain: 6 ways it hurts him

Romney caps off a bad week with a big fight over whether he lied about when he left Bain Capital. Here's why such a small dispute matters so much

Mitt Romney campaigns in Virginia on June 27: Romney has come under fire for possibly misrepresenting when exactly he left Bain Capital, and if reports are true, it could cause him some legal
(Image credit: AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Mitt Romney's presidential campaign was buffeted by news reports on Thursday — most prominently from The Boston Globe — which said that despite Romney's repeated insistence that he left private equity firm Bain Capital in February 1999, he was actually listed in SEC and Massachusetts legal filings as its "sole stockholder, chairman of the board, chief executive officer, and president" until 2002, pulling in an "executive" salary of at least $100,000 a year. Team Romney points to a report in Fortune, among other sources, to back up its assertion that Romney didn't actively manage Bain's investments after 1999, but even Republicans are getting nervous about Romney's Bain baggage. Why does it matter if Romney was running or just "running" Bain for three years, a decade ago? Here, six ways this new Bain flap could hurt Romney:

1. This makes Romney look dishonest

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