TightWind is written by Kyle Baxter. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Kimberly Strassel on the Obama campaign’s attack ad on Bain Capital:

A private-equity firm looking to quickly strip value from a company—to “suck” the life out of it—does not do so by investing $100 million in modernization and holding on for eight years, through bankruptcy. Bain has surely made its share of mistakes, and one may well have been trying to resuscitate a traditional steel firm in the grip of industry upheaval. The irony, says Mr. Huselton, is that this plant “wouldn’t even be in today’s news, if it hadn’t been the opportunity that came with Bain. Those jobs would have been gone in 1993.”

The President can try to walk back the ad’s message as much as he pleases, but it called Bain Capital vampires, and pretends that Bain acquired a perfectly fine company, loaded it with debt and destroyed it in eight years for their profit. That isn’t anywhere close to being true.

It also very much is an attack on private enterprise. You can’t say one second that when a private equity firm purchases a failing steel mill, attempts to turn it around (financed by debt), and fails due to low-price competition, they’re vampires and morally repugnant, and then say the next second that private equity firms are a “healthy” part of free markets. That’s worse than double-speak. The Obama campaign made a very specific attack and then, when called on it, are attempting to pretend they never said it.

The left has had a very fun time with Romney’s predilection toward changing positions. And they should, because Romney’s positions change with the winds. But perhaps they might want to be mindful of the very large plank in their own eye, too.

If you’re going to put an ad out, at least stand behind it.