Memo To Mitt Romney: Larry Summers Never Forgets

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Mitt Romney says that if he runs for president, “I won’t be asking Tim Geithner how the economy works—or Larry Summers how to start a business.” Have you ever talked business strategy with Governor Romney? He was very interested in what Harvard and I could do to help during the time when he was governor of Massachusetts. Are you surprised to hear him attacking your business acumen? No. You shouldn’t work in Washington if you are not prepared to become an object of symbolic attack. My recollection is that in his highly successful business career, Governor Romney did a fair amount of job-destroying at a number of companies that his firm purchased. [Newsweek]

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Julian Robertson Made Mitt Romney An Offer He Could Refuse

And did! (Next time think about throwing in a tutorial on not letting The Man make you his bitch and some tales from the crypt to sweeten the deal.) Not long after Mitt Romney dropped out of the presidential race in early 2008, a titan of New York finance, Julian H. Robertson, flew to Utah to deliver an eye-popping offer. He asked Mr. Romney to become chief executive of his hedge fund, Tiger Management, for an annual salary of about $30 million, plus investment profits, according to two people told of the discussions. For Mr. Romney, who had spent the previous decade in public life forgoing any paychecks, the position promised to catapult him back to the pinnacle of American business and into the ranks of the stratospherically rich. Several friends and relatives urged him to accept. “Let’s put it this way,” said Mr. Robertson. “He could have made a lot of money.” But Mr. Romney was uninterested. Defeat, Introspection, Reinvention, Nomination [NYT]