MITT ROMNEY’S CAMPAIGN said yesterday that President Barack Obama is willing to say anything to win a second term and should say he’s sorry for attacks on the Republican’s successful career at a private equity firm.

“No, we will not apologize,” the president responded, adding that if Romney wants credit for his business leadership, he also needs to take responsibility.

Questions about Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital and the fortune he earned there have dogged the former Massachusetts governor as Obama and his allies have said the Boston based firm shipped jobs overseas.

Romney insists he left the company in February 1999 to take over the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, but documents suggest he was still in charge as late as 2001.

Answers

Romney’s advisers, trying to explain the discrepancies between Romney’s account and federal documents, offered fresh explanations to shift the campaign back to more comfortable ground.

“He actually retired retroactively at that point,” Romney adviser Ed Gillespie said. “He ended up not going back to the firm after his time in Salt Lake City. So he was actually retired from Bain.”

A second adviser, Kevin Madden, said Romney had no choice but to have his name listed on Security and Exchange Commission documents as he sought to transfer the company’s leadership to partners.

“The reason that there is a document that had … his signature is because, during that transition from 1999 to 2002 … there was a duty to sign those documents,” Madden said.

Obama said Romney must square his explanation.

“Mr Romney claims he’s Mr Fix-It for the economy because of his business experience, so I think voters entirely legitimately want to know what is exactly his business experience,” Obama told WAVY-TV in Portsmouth, Va, in an interview taped Saturday and posted on the station’s website Sunday.

“Mr Romney is now claiming he wasn’t there at the time except his filings with the SEC listing says he was the CEO, chairman and president of the company.”

Obama’s advisers said that story won’t sell voters.

“Either you’re the CEO, president, chairman of the board of Bain Capital as you attest to the SEC or he’s telling the American people he bears no responsibility for that,” deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter said. “Both those things can’t be true. Either you’re in charge or you’re not.”

Apology

Romney has insisted he was not involved with Bain during the time it sent jobs overseas and had no day-to-day responsibility for the company. He said he wanted an apology from the president for implying otherwise.

“”No, we will not apologize,” Obama told the TV station.

Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., said Obama’s attacks cheapen the presidency and are an attempt to distract voters from Obama’s record in office.

“With these attacks, it shows that he’s just a small politician and running on small-ball politics at a time when our country is facing grave, grave challenges,” Ayotte said.

Added Gillespie: “We now know this president will say or do anything to keep the highest office in the land — even if it means demeaning the highest office in the land.”

Negative campaigning

Romney’s campaign released a television ad Sunday asking why the president had stopped talking about hope and change, his signature message during the 2008 campaign, and criticizing him for a barrage of negative ads against Romney.

Obama’s allies also pushed Romney to release more than the one year of tax returns he has shared. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s former top White House aide, noted Romney released 23 years of taxes to 2008 GOP nominee John McCain so he could be considered as a vice presidential nominee.

“John McCain’s people looked at it and went with Sarah Palin” as the No. 2 on the ticket that year. “Whatever is in there is far worse than the first year,” Emanuel said. “The Romney campaign isn’t stupid. They have decided that it’s better to get attacked on a lack of transparency, lack of accountability to the American people, versus telling you what’s in those taxes.”

Romney has refused and says that no amount of disclosure would satisfy his critics.