There was a sense early Monday that President Obama was on the defensive about his campaign’s attack on rival Mitt Romney’s business record with Bain Capital. Newark, New Jersey mayor Cory Booker, an Obama surrogate, caused a stir on Sunday by defending private equity in general and Bain in particular — only to invite ridicule by later posting a “hostage tape” walkback of his call for the Obama campaign to lay off Bain. Then, on Monday, former Democratic Rep. Harold Ford Jr. said he agreed with what Booker originally said. A few hours later, the Romney campaign released a web video combining Booker, Ford, and earlier pro-private equity remarks by Steven Rattner, who ran the Obama administration’s auto industry rescue effort.