Romney eventually chose to enter a fledgling consulting business, Bain & Company.

In 1978, Romney became one of the company's vice presidents, and in 1984 he was chosen to head Bain Capital, Bain's new venture capital company.

Venture capital firms invest their own capital in potentially high-growth companies and actively participate in their management.

Romney then returned in 1989 to the financially-strapped Bain & Co. to engineer its massive restructuring.

While rebuilding Bain, Romney said he would resign if he laid anyone off.

Now, five years later in his campaign against Kennedy, Romney uses his pledge as an example of job-making skills.

In 1991, Romney again left consulting to return to head Bain Capital, and now the candidate says his projects at both companies have led to the creation of more than 10,000 jobs.

As an example, Romney points to his financing of Staples--a large chain of low-cost office supply stores--which now has more than 10,000 full-time and part-time employees.

Staples' founder Thomas G. Stemberg '71, currently the company's chair of the company's board, came to Romney with the idea that by centralizing purchases for many stores, Staples could provide office supplies at a much lower cost than previous office supply stores.

"If you look at [Staples] in any broader societal terms it was a huge idea in terms of helping medium-sized and smaller businesses compete effectively with businesses of all sizes," says Bailey, an investment consultant. "Staples has made office supplies hugely cheaper to small and medium sized businesses. In terms of social good, that is a huge accomplishment."

Stemberg says Romney's help was essential to helping his concept grow.

"Mitt Romney has been a big part of our success here," he says. "I have tremendous respect for his ability and integrity."

But owners of small-sized office supply stores have recently accused Romney of running them out of business because of Staples' volume pricing.

And others have insisted during the campaign that Romney has exaggerated his claims of job creation, charging that the Republican candidate has both destroyed jobs--by closing some factories in takeovers--and has created low-quality jobs in their place.

Staples, in particular, has been targeted for not providing health insurance to its part-time employees.