Mitt Romney doesn’t talk much about his financial industry career. Yet Romney shouldn’t — and can’t — run from his past. His best bet is to try to turn his experience into an advantage. He should say: It takes someone who knows Wall Street to fix Wall Street, and President Obama isn’t that person.

On Monday, Romney got a reminder of his political peril. Obama unveiled a website and attack ad that blames Romney and his old industry, private equity, for deep cuts in the steel industry. The ad focuses on workers at GST Steel, who lost jobs and pension income to corporate bankruptcy in 2001 — a decade after Romney’s firm, Bain Capital, had taken GST over.