(Image source: The Boston Globe)

BY ZACH TOOMBS

It’s a new swing in an old attack on GOP presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney. The former Massachusetts governor’s Republican rivals are hitting him hard on his past at the private investment firm Bain Capital.

By Romney’s own definition, his work at Bain tied him to many companies, some that created jobs and some -- not so much.

It’s a theme his opponents have harped on for years in political ads, whether it was Ted Kennedy in 1994....

MAN 1: “Romney said about -- he thought layoffs were good.”
MAN 2: “I’d like for him to show me where these 10,000 jobs that he’s created are.”

… Or this one, from a Newt Gingrich-friendly super PAC in 2012.

NARRATOR: “Mitt Romney became CEO of Bain Capital the day the company was formed. His mission? To reap massive rewards for himself and his investors.”
MAN: “Mitt Romney, them guys, they don’t care who I am.”
WOMAN: “He’s for small businesses... no he isn’t.”

In his own defense, Romney has argued he created more jobs than he cut during his time at Bain through investments in successful businesses. Here’s an exchange from the ABC debate in New Hampshire over the weekend:

NEWT GINGRICH: “They took one specific company, they walked through in detail, they showed what they bought it for, how much they took out of it and the 1,700 people they left unemployed.”
ROMNEY: “We understand that in the free economy and in the private sector, sometimes investments don’t work and they’re not successful. It always pains you if you have to be in a situation of downsizing a business in order to try and make it more successful.” 

Cutting through the political spin, The Wall Street Journal examined 77 business Bain invested in while Romney led the firm from 1984 to 1999 and found there some huge gains for the company -- but also a high failure rate.

“...22% either filed for bankruptcy reorganization or closed their doors by the end of the eighth year after Bain first invested, sometimes with substantial job losses... Another finding was that Bain produced stellar returns for its investors—yet the bulk of these came from just a small number of its investments. Ten deals produced more than 70% of the dollar gains."

The Bain attacks have picked up momentum over the course of two debates this past weekend and with the approaching South Carolina primary -- a contest that analysts say could be the last stand for candidates like Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry.

Politico says the Bain issue could be make-or-break for Romney in blue-collar states like South Carolina, writing:

“In the context of this moment in American politics, in which frustration with the privileged is boiling hot, the attack, coming from Republicans on one side and the Obama campaign on the other, will test Romney. If he ends up looking more like an opportunist who profited for the few, instead of a man who created jobs for the many, it’s hard to imagine his polls numbers won’t drop.”