Bain Capital Saved Spot Where President First Kissed Michelle !!

Bain Capital Saved Spot Where President First Kissed Michelle

This is perhaps one of *Theee Most* Ironic stories of all time !!!

It seems that Barack & Michelle Obama's "first kiss" was in front of a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop in Chicago !!

A granite marker was erected there in commemoration of the event.

The kicker is that Baskin-Robbins was part of a business deal that was bought up by......

get ready..........

Bain Capital of all things !!!

It looks like Bain "saved" some jobs eh?

I wonder if and when that ice cream shop has a financial problem if the Government would be forced to bail them out !!

It could be they would be "Too Famous to Fail"

Well, at least President Barack Obama should know where to send the Thank You card.

This week, a new memorial was unveiled in Chicago recalling the first kiss by Barack Obama and his future bride Michelle. The 3,000-pound granite marker stands outside a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop, where the future couple shared some treats before that first buss.

The ice cream shop wouldn't be around today, however, if not for the efforts of Bain Capital. You know, the private equity firm started by GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney which Obama has been demonizing for weeks on end.


In 2005, Bain and two other private equity firms purchased Dunkin’ Brands Incorporated for $2.425 billion, according to a 2006 company press release.

Dunkin’ Brands is the parent company of Baskin-Robbins, at whose Hyde Park, Chicago location the president and his future wife Michelle went on their first date — and shared their first lip lock....

Bain Capital Saved Spot Where President First Kissed Michelle


related story

“On our first date, I treated her to the finest ice cream Baskin-Robbins had to offer, our dinner table doubling as the curb. I kissed her, and it tasted like chocolate.”

-- President Barack Obama from an interview in O, The Oprah Magazine, Feb. 2007; Image Courtesy of BlackPast.org

On this site, President Barack Obama first kissed Michelle Obama.

Chicago Mall Erects Monument on Site of First Obama Kiss

Heartwarming and Wholesome !!

Is this what passes as news these days?

A 3000 pound granite marker seriously what the hell guess what a lot of people had their "first kiss" in a lot of places but hey lets immortalize the worst president in Us history.

I am so sick of the god complex that some people are all to willing to give to a mortal man.

Baskin-Robbins was owned by the founders until purchased in 1967 (just prior to Burt Baskin's death) by the United Brands Company (United Fruit). In 1972, the company went public for the only time in its history when United Brands sold 17% in an IPO. A year later, British food company J. Lyons and Co. purchased Baskin-Robbins from United Brands and all public stock. J. Lyons then merged with Allied Breweries, becoming Allied-Lyons in 1978. Allied-Lyons then merged with Pedro Domecq S.A. in 1994, becoming Allied Domecq. Baskin-Robbins, Togo's, and Dunkin' Donuts now comprise Dunkin' Brands, Inc. Dunkin' Brands was part of Allied Domecq until its purchase in 2006 by a group of private equity firms - Bain Capital, Thomas Lee, and The Carlyle Group.

In 1999, Baskin-Robbins terminated approximately 200 domestic franchisee agreements in Southern markets it deemed "nonstrategic." These shop owners were notified of the agreement cancellation via a conference call.[ Over 40 former franchisees united to form a new company, KaleidoScoops, which operates as a cooperative, and is based in Aurora, Illinois. Other former Baskin-Robbins franchisees converted their stores to franchises of McConnell's (of Santa Barbara, California), and The Ice Cream Club.

emphasis mine

Source

Did you just inadvertently prove all of those accusations against Romney, regarding downsizing and outsourcing, true???



~Heff

reply to post by Hefficide


Here is my problems with "outsourcing" accusations the GM bailout touted as sucess bailed out a corporation that has plants in Canada and Mexico, and other parts of the Globe.

Then hires Immelt as a "job czar" from GE that has outsources thousands if not millions of American jobs.

The alternative green loans to EU countries that was touted as "putting the American worker back to work".

So if anything has been proven outsourcing happens on the left as well but to a far more extent.

Originally posted by boncho
Is this what passes as news these days?

Actually, the real question might be who got the "contracts".

Maybe some cronies got over paid again.

We need to investigate

How much carbon pollution did all this cause?

reply to post by neo96


I don't disagree a bit that all sides of the isle are greedy and that everybody is out to get rich - including using techniques like outsourcing.

I just pointed out that Bain took over Baskin Robbins and it looks like they cost more than a few folks their jobs. Was it the right thing for the company? Maybe. Was it profitable for Bain? Probably. Would Mitt Romney be sweating in his loafers if he were involved in this discussion, currently. Probably.

Are almost all politicians corrupt? ABSOLUTELY.

~Heff

And edit to add: Y'all should have caught me here... I misread the dates and the downsizing happened before Bain took over. I didn't catch it until a member U2U'd me and told me ( thank you! )... So I'll eat my crow here and now. When I'm wrong - I am wrong!

Time to paddle Heff!



~Heff

reply to post by Hefficide


There a quite a few elements to outsourcing but one question can be asked:

Why is it cheaper to have a product made 10,000 miles away and have it shipped here than it is to have the same product made less than 1 mile away?

Is that greed?

Or simple business 101?

If it cost's more to keep a business doors open than it takes in it either goes bankrupt or it moves.

Outsourcing is major problem in this country no one will deny but where the conflict comes is the "Reasons why".

A business exists to make money not to serve the wants of the employees might sound cold but that is the way it is.

The employee seeks to make money not to serve the wants of the employer but has priced themselves self out of a job.

No one will argue with a fair days work for a fair day's wage but the market should dictate pay and compensation but where we have Government dictating pay and compensation as well as how a business can conduct itself,where it can do business, and how it is suppose to make any good or service.

Bottom line no amount of Government or political ideology is not going to solve any problems until they understand the causation of them, but that day will never come because there are too many differing views.

But the question is did Bain really save the location? All they really did was buy Baskin Robbins. Which while it now owns that location and brand of the store. This is factually true. Who is to say that if they had went under that another company like KaleidoScoops wouldn't have reopened the store under their brand?

reply to post by xuenchen

Actually, the real question might be who got the "contracts".

At least that is a question. A legitimate question. Instead we have a right wing rag bash a left wing politician.

I'm not a fan of either side. But just imagine a right-wing rag investigated its own, asked its own hard questions. Imagine the left doing the same thing. Imagine more than a two party system.

Journalism fail.

This isn't journalism though is it?

reply to post by xuenchen


I fully support the commemoration of such a momentous occasion. It was probably the first time he had kissed a woman.

fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com...

reply to post by xuenchen



How do they know he kissed his wife there and not someone else. I thought the POTUS was gay, way gay.

I'm sure a good number of you are well aware of the activities of Bain, but their list of companies blew me away...

Since inception it has invested in or acquired hundreds of companies including AMC Entertainment, Aspen Education Group, Brookstone, Burger King, Burlington Coat Factory, Clear Channel Communications, Domino's Pizza, DoubleClick, Dunkin' Donuts, D&M Holdings, Guitar Center, Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), Sealy, The Sports Authority, Staples, Toys "R" Us, Warner Music Group and The Weather Channel.

Wikipedia.

As far as the monument to the Obama's... just a shrewd marketing move. The guy has tens of millions of followers and this ice cream shop has associated itself with his biography. Nothing to do with idolization.

Originally posted by boncho
reply to post by xuenchen

Actually, the real question might be who got the "contracts".

 

At least that is a question. A legitimate question. Instead we have a right wing rag bash a left wing politician.

I'm not a fan of either side. But just imagine a right-wing rag investigated its own, asked its own hard questions. Imagine the left doing the same thing. Imagine more than a two party system.

Journalism fail.

This isn't journalism though is it?

You just might be 100% correct after all !!

It seems that the original ice cream shop is no longer there !!

According to other stories, it is now a Subway Sandwich shop

Neither Breitbart story mentions that

Here are two "Liberal" news stories....

CNN story

That quote is inscribed on a new plaque outside the building where they met – no longer a Baskin-Robbins but a Subway sandwich shop, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The plaque sits atop a granite boulder, according to the Tribune, and was commissioned by the owners of the shopping mall where the Obamas went on that first date.

Chicago's plaque to a kiss

HuffPost story

A lot of things have changed since Michelle Robinson and Barack Obama shared their first kiss outside a Hyde Park Baskin-Robbins. The new couple is now the First Couple, that ice cream shop is now a Subway, and the pair have shared many smooches since, all over the world.

But in Chicago, where the Obamas have become hometown heroes, that modest landmark carries significance. After over two years of preparations, a plaque commemorating that kiss has been erected at Dorchester Commons shopping center, NBC Chicago reports.

Obamas' First Kiss Marked With Plaque At Former Ice Cream Shop In Hyde Park

reply to post by xuenchen


So does this mean you are going to stop citing brietbart as a legitimate news source?

Originally posted by nimbinned
reply to post by xuenchen

 

I fully support the commemoration of such a momentous occasion. It was probably the first time he had kissed a woman.

fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com...

I'm hearing more rumors now.

They say the site will be cited as a National Historic Landmark.

Perhaps next year they will write it up as a tribute to a former President !

reply to post by neo96


I agree with all you said. In my eyes too much government is to blame equally with Corporate avarice. I'd also postulate that the westerners tend to want to live beyond their individual means, which exacerbates the problem.

In general, again, my apologies for my previous error in time line. I may be considered a liberal around here, but I'm an honest one damn it! And I hate that I misspoke.

And on topic. To be perfectly honest - I'm actually puzzled as to why there'd be a plaque to commemorate where anybody first kissed anybody else? I've never seen another such historical marker in my own travels.

~Heff

reply to post by xuenchen


Citing something as a national landmark isn't really all that big of a deal really. Well it is but it isn't. In North East Ohio they have President Garfield's birth place marked in Orange(a town not the color). and then his home further east in the State marked as one. It is nice and really cool if you like history but that is all it really is.

Originally posted by KeliOnyx
reply to post by xuenchen

 

So does this mean you are going to stop citing brietbart as a legitimate news source?

WeLL.......

Let me think about THAT for a while.


At least we had a chance to out them on this viscous fumble

Originally posted by Hefficide
reply to post by neo96

 

And on topic. To be perfectly honest - I'm actually puzzled as to why there'd be a plaque to commemorate where anybody first kissed anybody else? I've never seen another such historical marker in my own travels.

~Heff

It is probably something unique to the Obama Presidency. Interesting trivia, and really if we knew where George first kissed Martha you don't think they would construct a marker on the site? It is just an odd thing that we happen to know where it is and a feel good kind of story.