Obama's anti-Romney Bain ads dividing Dems

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Fox News:

The Obama campaign's sustained attack on Mitt Romney's Bain Capital record is driving a divide in the Democratic Party, with former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell becoming the latest Obama ally to criticize it as others double down on the strategy.

All the while, the White House may be encountering a mounting message discipline problem, with both sides of that divide now spouting commentary that's not exactly on the talking points memo.

Democratic South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn, in an attempt to back up the Obama campaign, went so far Tuesday as to claim Bain was "raping" other companies.

"There is something about raping companies and leaving them in debt and setting up Swiss bank accounts and corporations and businesses in the Grand Caymans. I have a real serious problem with that," Clyburn told MSNBC.

The Obama campaign quickly distanced itself from that remark.

"We strongly disagree with Congressman Clyburn's choice of words -- they have no place in this conversation," Obama campaign spokeswoman Lis Smith said, while still urging Romney to "come clean about his record as a corporate buyout specialist."

Clyburn's comments came after President Obama defended the Bain criticism during a Monday press conference on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Chicago.

Yet other business-minded Democrats continue to speak out.

“I think they’re very disappointing,” Rendell said of the Obama campaign ads on Bain, which Romney started and ran before becoming governor of Massachusetts.

Rendell, Pennsylvania governor from 2003 to 2011, said going after Bain is “fair game,” considering Romney has touted his work at the firm as proof he is better-suited than Obama to revive the struggling U.S. economy.

“But I think how you examine it, the tone, what you say, is important as well,” he said in an interview with BuzzFeed.

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The Obama campaign reaps what it sows...