Charles Dharapak/Associated Press

The government, it’s been said, can’t create jobs; but it can destroy family-owned barbecue joints.

Scouring swing states for misery, the Romney campaign came across the tale of Bill’s Barbecue, an 82-year-old Richmond, VA chain that closed in September—because of President Obama. Or so a new ad claims: “Bill’s Barbecue couldn’t take four years under President Obama. Can we afford four more?”

At a campaign stop in West Allis, Wisconsin this morning, Mitt Romney provided more specifics: “I met Rhoda Elliott. She has been running her family restaurants for years, a business that has been in her family for 83 years. At its high point, she employed 200 people. She just closed it down. And she told me that regulations and taxes, ‘Obamacare’ and the effects of the Obama economy put her out of business.”



So that’s one explanation for why Bill’s went out of business: Government regulation. (The death panelists don’t like pulled pork.) It’s not the only one. Some Richmond locals have suggested that, in truth, Bill’s was just another victim of the free market—i.e., its competitors offered a better product.

An editor of Richmond Magazine, Brandon Fox, tweeted yesterday “And all over Richmond can be heard the wail, ‘But Bill’s Barbecue went out of business because it was crap!’” Less brusquely, Mark Holmberg, reporting for a local CBS affiliate, said “The service wasn’t real friendly or brisk, the prices a little big for small sandwiches. The places on the Boulevard didn’t feel clean—they felt old, tired. I had a hard time figuring out when the Myers Street store was open. There were health code violations, although not too extreme.”

He added, “It’s a tough, risky business, which is why restaurants close every day. While Bill’s was struggling, Alamo BBQ opened in Church Hill three years ago. It’s been thriving in what was once a rather tough business location.”

If Mr. Obama gets the blame for Bill’s, perhaps he deserves credit for Alamo BBQ? No, Mr. Romney would surely respond, only a Marxist would suggest, as the president once did, that if you’ve got a business, you didn’t build it alone.

Mr. Romney’s take on Bill’s seems perfectly representative of his general outlook. If a business succeeds, the government can’t share the credit. If it fails, it’s the government’s fault.