Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney and challenger Rick Perry have begun a battle over who can better handle the economy, with both playing up their management experience and expertise at creating jobs.
But Texas governor Perry’s chief strategist, David Carney, is not all that impressed with former Massachusetts governor Romney’s work outside government, according to
The Washington Post.
“I don’t think the country is looking for somebody to be a buyout specialist,” Carney said, referring to Romney’s co-founding one of the nation’s top private equity firms, Bain Capital.
Some Republicans would rather see the two candidates focus on the economic issues at hand rather than each other’s background.
“Both private- and public-sector experience are helpful, but that’s the wrong debate,” Allan Hubbard, director of the National Economic Council under President George W. Bush, told The Post.
“They’re both going to have very different hands if they’re elected in 2012. We all know what the hand is. What would they do? That’s what they need to be talking about,” he said.
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