Reticence over career leaves Romney vulnerable When Barack Obama's campaign was momentarily overwhelmed in early 2008 by the incendiary remarks of his former pastor on race, the now president stepped up to make a memorable speech on the topic. Is it now time for Mitt Romney to tell the world in his own words about his career in private equity? It is, of course, beyond risible to compare a topic that carries the historic and emotional weight of race relations in the US with the debate over the latter-day masters of the universe of financial capitalism. But the political rule is the same - either you define yourself or your opponents will do it for you, to their advantage. In the 2012 race, Mr Romney has done little more than blandly assert that his work in private equity heading Bain and Company merely made him a foot soldier in the cause of capitalism, an arena in which some investments succeed, and others fail. Along the way, Mr Romney gave his opponents a devastating sound bite - "I like being able to fire people" - in New Hampshire on Monday. The fact that he was talking about the right of consumers to change health insurers rather than the thrill of sacking steel workers is immaterial in America's anything-goes political culture. As one person remarked of the likely response of Mr Obama's campaign strategist: "You could hear David Axelrod's tail wagging." The most lethal attacks styling Mr Romney as a corporate raider looting companies, however, have come from Republicans trying to chase down his commanding lead in the primaries. On one level, that could be a plus for Mr Romney. Better to hone your response now to attacks that will increase tenfold once the campaign proper is under way and the election is round the corner. Although it did not feel like it at the time, the Obama campaign was strengthened by the months-long bare-knuckle fight with Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination in 2008. By the time Mr Obama had won, he had been thoroughly vetted as a candidate. Perhaps Mr Romney will be in the same position once he has seen off his chief tormentor, fellow Republican Newt Gingrich. A Gingrich-aligned super-political action committee - which take unlimited donations to advertise in campaigns, without co-ordinating with candidates - will be running segments of a 27-minute film in South Carolina before its primary next week excoriating Mr Romney as a heartless profiteer. Some Republicans see Mr Gingrich's attacks on capitalism as shameless from a fellow conservative. But they may resonate in South Carolina which has suffered sharply in the downturn, and lost industries such as textiles to competitors such as China. It is not so much the creative destruction of capitalism that irks voters. Even household names such as Kodak can be swept aside by the tide of technology and globalisation. Most Americans probably understand and accept that, but it is the huge windfall profits earned by private equity that make the industry analogous to Wall Street, and in the current environment, equally as toxic. That still begs the larger question. How do you explain private equity to ordinary voters at a time of wariness and even repulsion at the finance industry? Do you even bother trying? The Romney campaign has already stumbled in trying to present the number of "net jobs" created at Bain. The initial calculation counted only the upside in three successful deals and, in any case, a genuine reckoning is elusive. The campaign itself does not want to get into the weeds of trying to defend and explain every deal Mr Romney oversaw, as many went bad. For the moment, Mr Romney seems to have settled on simply portraying himself as a defender of "free enterprise" and Mr Obama as a crypto-socialist out of his depth in managing a modern economy. That is risky, as the Main St versus Wall St debate is alive and well in conservative politics. When Rick Perry, the Texas governor, said on Fox News on Tuesday night that Mr Romney was a "vulture capitalist," the popular conservative host, Sean Hannity was aghast. "You sound like Occupy Wall St," he said. Mr Hannity was right, but that doesn't mean such attacks, as cynical as they are from Messrs Perry and Gingrich, won't hit home.