David Perdue has made his decades of international business experience the centerpiece of his U.S. Senate campaign, the main reason that voters should send him to Washington so that he can do there what he has done in private enterprise. For example, here's how he introduces himself to voters when you visit his campaign website:

Later, Perdue goes on to tout his experience in management consulting, where he learned the skills that he hopes to take the U.S. Senate on Georgia's behalf:

This personal, hands-on approach was more effective than anything Perdue learned from a textbook. He developed a deep understanding of manufacturing, a genuine connection with co-workers, and the ability to utilize those strengths anywhere in the world."

Reading that, you get this image of Perdue as the friendly, caring boss, walking through the plant, shirts sleeves rolled up, saying hi to Bob and Doris and asking Edgar how his kids are doing. But that's very different in tone and content from how Perdue himself described his career in a 2005 court deposition. When asked whether he had experience with outsourcing -- the shipping of American jobs overseas, where they could be done more cheaply, Perdue said:

Later with Haggar Corp. — sorry, with Gitano and Sara Lee, having lived there, I lived in Singapore with Gitano and in Hong Kong with Sara Lee — sourcing was my primary responsibility in both of those locations. I dealt with companies from Japan westward all the way to Kenya and Lesotho in Africa, Dubai, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar, Indonesia, Vietnam, all points west of Japan.

Then at Reebok, most of -- all of our production was sourced in Asia. Same thing, both apparel, textile products and footwear products. I could go on with that. That's the summary."

Let's not be naive: Outsourcing is a cruel reality of the modern economy. For business, it has offered a way to slash production costs to the bone and in the process lower costs for consumers as well. But there's also no question that it has gutted much of this nation's industrial base, driven wages down and left a lot of communities without an economic core or even reason for existence.

But a process that has been traumatic for some has been beneficial for others. Perdue and others in the managerial class that has helped implement outsourcing have profited from it handsomely. Not surprisingly, they tend to view it as a cold-blooded business decision, as a matter of dollars saved and margins improved and quarterly profits exceeding estimates, and they get rewarded for it. You can hear that dispassionate mindset reflected in Perdue's deposition as he recounts his career.

I don't know how much impact, if any, the leak of the deposition to Politico this week will have on the trajectory of the Senate race, which Perdue appears to be winning by a small but stubborn margin. But I do know it leaves a different impression of Perdue the successful business executive than that projected until now by his campaign.