Mitt Romney shut down his firm to search for missing girl

[gongoozler]

In the summer of 1996, Mitt Romney received a frantic report from one of his fellow executives at Bain Capital.

Robert Gay's 14-year-old daughter, Melissa, had gone missing after taking a train into New York City, Gay told Romney. Gay said he and his wife, Lynette, had contacted the police and were desperately trying to track down Melissa.

She might have become lost in an underworld rave party scene after attending a party on Randall's Island on the city's East River. Rave parties were typically all-night affairs punctuated by the use of the drug Ecstasy, which can induce euphoria or hallucinations. The Gays feared their daughter might be unable to contact home.

Romney stepped in and committed Bain's resources to help with the search.

'I said let's close the firm, let's close the company - we were in Boston - and let's all of us fly down to New York and try to find her,' Romney recalled recently when asked about the incident at a rally in Ohio this month. 'So we closed the business, we went home and packed our things.'

The search ultimately led to a home in New Jersey where Melissa was found safe. Soon she was back with her family.

As Romney, now a Republican presidential candidate, explained it, his decision at Bain was what anyone would have done.

His recounting at the campaign event was one of the few times has spoken publicly about the matter.

But his political campaigns and allies have not hesitated to highlight the story at critical times as he has looked to sell himself to voters as a can-do leader and manager who takes charge in a crisis and gets results.

In this, his second presidential race, Romney's campaign has been built around the notion that the nation needs a president with deep experience in the private and public sectors. He has highlighted both his work as a businessman and his efforts turning around the financially troubled Salt Lake City Olympics. He has focused less on his four-year term as Massachusetts governor.

The message he is trying to convey is that he is just the type of president needed for a country in economic turmoil.

During the GOP nomination fight in 2008, which Arizona Sen. John McCain won, Romney's campaign ran a TV ad that featured an interview with Robert Gay, who credited Romney with helping rescue his daughter.

'My 14-year-old daughter had disappeared in New York City for three days. No one could find her. My business partner stepped forward to take charge. He closed the company and brought almost all our employees to New York. He said, `I don't care how long it takes. We're going to find her.'' Gay said in the ad.

'He set up a command center and searched through the night. The man who helped save my daughter was Mitt Romney. Mitt's done a lot of things that people say are nearly impossible. But for me, the most important thing he's ever done is to help save my daughter.'

Four years later, Romney tops the GOP field in the delegate count so far and is on pace to win the nomination. But he has struggled to convince Republican voters, who seem split over whether to demand ideological purity in their leaders, that he is the right nominee for the times.

Enter a new ad about Melissa's search. It's by Restore Our Future, a super political action committee run by former Romney advisers. The commercial features the same interview with Gay.

These days, Robert and Lynette Gay have had little to say about the massive search in the years since they retrieved their daughter.

'That was a long time ago and she's gotten on with her life,' Lynette Gay told The Associated Press when reached by telephone last week.

When the Gays sought help, those who worked at Bain Capital at the time recall Romney wasting little time shutting down the venture capital firm, gathering up as many volunteers as he could and racing to Manhattan.

'When Mitt heard that, he felt we should do everything we could to help,' said Bob White, a longtime friend and founding partner of Bain Capital who advises the presidential candidate.

Romney set up a command center at the LaGuardia Airport Marriott hotel to help coordinate the search.

'We set up a headquarters. We met with the detectives from the New York City Police Department,' Romney recalled. 'We hired a private investigating firm to help guide us through this process.'

The firm also pulled in as many favors as they could from companies they had worked with over the years.

They got printers R. R. Donnelly to produce thousands of fliers with a picture of Melissa and persuaded the pharmacy chain Duane Reade to put the fliers in customers' bags as they checked them out.

They enlisted volunteers from financial firms such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Price Waterhouse to widen the search.

'We contacted our law firm in New York and said we need some lawyers to go out with us to walk the street and look for her,' Romney said. 'Then we contacted our accounting firm. We said we need some accountants to go out and walk the streets with us.'

By day the volunteers scoured the streets, handing out fliers, talking to runaways and trying to track down any leads they could. The longer it took to track down Melissa, the slimmer the chances that she would be found, police told them.

Marc Wolpow, then a managing director at Bain Capital, had grown up in New York and felt comfortable helping coordinate the search through all parts of the city.

'I do recall that Mitt jumped in and lead by example, so that everyone else at Bain Capital was eager to lend a hand,' Wolpow said.

As the search continued, Robert Gay told reporters that Melissa had left her home in Ridgefield, Conn., and headed for New York City without telling her parents.

Gay said her daughter arranged for a young man the couple had never met to pick her up. The two met another person; all three eventually ended up at the rave on Randall's Island.

After the party, Melissa and the two young men, age 17 and 19, 'crashed-out' under the Whitestone Bridge, Gay said.

'The two fellows said they last saw her Sunday morning leaving with some other people,' Gay told Newsday at the time. 'What I can't understand is how the two of them could have taken her to the concert and then run off.'

The searches extended deep into the night as the volunteers wandered through the city's parks and ventured into the Manhattan's late night club scene.

'So there we were, a bunch of folks in suits walking around in the parks of New York and in the streets and showing pictures, and saying - when we saw teenagers - `Have you seen this girl?'' Romney said.

'After a day or two of that it made the news there are all these guys walking around asking kids if they'd seen a picture of this young lady - guys in suits and briefcases,' he added.

The local media began running stories focused on the image of buttoned-down financial analysts wandering the city's grittier neighborhoods. It was the break Romney and the rest of the volunteers had been seeking.

After three television stations picked up the story, a call came into a hotline.

According to Romney, the caller asked if there was a reward and then hung up. Police were able to trace the call to a home in Montville, N.J., where they discovered Melissa.

Hours later she was reunited with her parents.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... ghter.html

[Apache]

This is a great story. So happy for the family. Romney did a good thing. He is a parent and a human being. This family was lucky to have someone like him to help.

[gongoozler]

Both nascarfan88 and I rescue people, too. You, and even I, wouldn't want either of us as POTUS.

Presidential material and hero...Romney's a Double Threat Guy!

[keyboarder]

Both nascarfan88 and I rescue people, too. You, and even I, wouldn't want either of us as POTUS.

Presidential material and hero...Romney's a Double Threat Guy!

Great post Gongoozler. Can't think of anyone better to have as potus. This information just shows what normal people do when trouble looms. The Gay family had a friend with their employer, someone who would go the extra mile for his employees. I see no reason to think romney wouldn't act this way in any crisis. Better to try and lose that never to attempt. Mitt has a heart instead of a thumping gizzard.

[Crock Hunter]

Both nascarfan88 and I rescue people, too. You, and even I, wouldn't want either of us as POTUS.

Gonzo is a huge fan of glurge... he believes it to be a substitute for critical thinking. . ..
. . .. in Gonzo's case.. it is...

[keyboarder]

Both nascarfan88 and I rescue people, too. You, and even I, wouldn't want either of us as POTUS.

Presidential material and hero...Romney's a Double Threat Guy!

He showed some compassion once, something not reflected in his current policies, but he did nothing heroic. He just spent money, most of it not even his own.

When Mitten had a real chance to be a hero he ducked Vietnam service . . . while arguing with the French that Americans other than himself should go and kill or die.

We've learned zip about Mitten as POTUS material, but we have got a better sense of the judgment of his followers. Thanks.

As far as "zipped info" is concerned, Bambi holds the title of least known about anything and it doesn't concern his followers. This says alot about his followers.

[Crock Hunter]

Both nascarfan88 and I rescue people, too. You, and even I, wouldn't want either of us as POTUS.

Presidential material and hero...Romney's a Double Threat Guy!

He showed some compassion once, something not reflected in his current policies, but he did nothing heroic. He just spent money, most of it not even his own.

When Mitten had a real chance to be a hero he ducked Vietnam service . . . while arguing with the French that Americans other than himself should go and kill or die.

We've learned zip about Mitten as POTUS material, but we have got a better sense of the judgment of his followers. Thanks.

As far as "zipped info" is concerned, Bambi holds the title of least known about anything and it doesn't concern his followers.
This says alot about his followers.

LMAO.. yea... it say's they're not birther idiots.. ..

In you case I suppose you're saying .... . once an idiot birther .. always and idiot birther... .

[Wneglia]

Another Mitt Romney story

[Tertius]

Romney knows when and where to set his priorities.

[Crock Hunter]

Romney knows when and where to set his priorities.

Indeed... Rmoney has made it perfectly clear where his priorities lie...

[Bungalow Bill]

I suppose if we ever need a president who can find a 14 year-old girl who went to Jersey after
a rave party, Mitt is the man. Somehow, I don't think that scenario will occur very often.

[Supsalemgr]

I have enjoyed watching the libs make fools of themselves on this thread. Romney did a noble and decent act to assist one of hie employees in a time of need. And our lib friends try to concoct whatever they can to denigrate him.

What is happening is the Obama campaign spent millions of dollars in negative ads trying to define Romney as the "monopoly" guy and it has failed. Once the American people saw Romney on the same stage as Obama they saw a likeable guy and a concerned human being. In my view Romney won the second debate, not because of the context of the debate, but because just allowing the American people to see him on the same stage with Obama for ninety minutes is a winner for Romney.

[gongoozler]

I have enjoyed watching the libs make fools of themselves on this thread. Romney did a noble and decent act to assist one of hie employees in a time of need. And our lib friends try to concoct whatever they can to denigrate him.

What is happening is the Obama campaign spent millions of dollars in negative ads trying to define Romney as the "monopoly" guy and it has failed. Once the American people saw Romney on the same stage as Obama they saw a likeable guy and a concerned human being. In my view Romney won the second debate, not because of the context of the debate, but because just allowing the American people to see him on the same stage with Obama for ninety minutes is a winner for Romney.

'Sup, Sup?

I saw the second debate as a tie, but whatever, the libs wanted to call it a win because Obama didn't take a dump on stage like he did in the first debate. That's fine. Romney will be the real winner. I can't wait for Monday night. Obama has a lot to answer for.

[Colonel Taylor]

I am curious if the moderator is doing their homework and getting their points from Obama and his followers. It's his only chance.

I have enjoyed watching the libs make fools of themselves on this thread. Romney did a noble and decent act to assist one of hie employees in a time of need. And our lib friends try to concoct whatever they can to denigrate him.

What is happening is the Obama campaign spent millions of dollars in negative ads trying to define Romney as the "monopoly" guy and it has failed. Once the American people saw Romney on the same stage as Obama they saw a likeable guy and a concerned human being. In my view Romney won the second debate, not because of the context of the debate, but because just allowing the American people to see him on the same stage with Obama for ninety minutes is a winner for Romney.

'Sup, Sup?

I saw the second debate as a tie, but whatever, the libs wanted to call it a win because Obama didn't take a dump on stage like he did in the first debate. That's fine. Romney will be the real winner. I can't wait for Monday night. Obama has a lot to answer for.

[O Really]

I think to the extent the story is reasonably accurate, Romney did a decent and sympathetic thing, and I'm glad it worked out. I've had employers who would have done the same, and some who would have said, "good look finding your kid...have a good weekend." And it was a nice ad, designed to paint Romney as a nice guy who cares about others. Unfortunately for Romney, one nice story does not overcome many in which he shows he really doesn't care much about others, and to which he keeps adding in "now" time.

[gongoozler]

Mitten did a good but non-heroic thing...

I wonder what the girl's parents would say.

[Bungalow Bill]

Hey, here's an idea. Maybe Mittman can get together a whole bunch of his campaign workers and
they can try to find out which loopholes and deductions he would cancel in order to make for that
20% cut in tax rates. Of course, that will likely be harder than finding a girl in Jersey.

[gongoozler]

I have enjoyed watching Supsalemgr hallucinate again. Mitten did a good but non-heroic thing with other people's money and no one here has denigrated him for it.

It's hilarious that you cons are now wetting yourselves over one time when Mitten chose to be a community organizer rather than a capitalist vulture. For years, not just 3 days, Obama made a career of it.

I wonder what the girl's parents would say.

They've rightly lauded Mitten, but heroism? C'mon.

Romney would agree with you.

[Colonel Taylor]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I have done volunteering and know a few folks who have done amazing things volunteering. And I will tell you those who do the most are the ones you NEVER hear from. Those usually in the forefront patting themselves on the back most of the time do very little. I've seen it and I've lived it some right here in this county that should have been jailed but were right up front taking the accolades. Happens every day.

[gongoozler]

They've rightly lauded Mitten, but heroism? C'mon.

I don't know one way or the other but I'd guess he spent most of his time at that "command center at the LaGuardia Airport Marriott hotel". NTTAWWT, it was probably the best use of his community organizing talents given his connections and leadership of Bain. But, there aren't many heroes sitting in airport hotels.

Romney would agree with you.

Could be, it's common sense. If so, he disagrees with you and keyboarder - "hero".

He's a humble man. Most heroes don't seem themselves as such.