WASHINGTON DC – Whether the bailout of General Motors and Chrysler Corporation was proper was back in the headlights of Michigan politics as Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney charged the bailout was an example of “crony capitalism,” but top Democrats, including former Governor Jennifer Granholm, said Romney was stabbing the state in the back.
All the GOP presidential candidates who opposed the bailout, including former Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum and former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich are wrong in their beliefs, but Granholm, U.S. Rep. John Dingell (D-Dearborn) and U.S. Rep. Sander Levin (D-Royal Oak) said it was worse for Romney since he is a Michigan native and “should know better.”
The controversy came as Romney published an op-ed in The Detroit News that charged the bailout made Detroit’s economic fortunes worse than if the companies had gone through a regular private bankruptcy.
And Attorney General Bill Schuette, chair of the Romney campaign in Michigan, said Democrats were attacking the Michigan native and former Massachusetts governor to try to draw attention away from President Barack Obama’s economic record.
The tangle also came up as both Romney and Santorum began their Michigan television ad campaigns.
Romney began an ad that talked about him growing up in Michigan and decrying the weakened state of the American auto industry (and one liberal blog said the ad bore a close resemblance to an online ad Romney ran in New Hampshire last summer talking about the time he had spent there).
Santorum unveiled an ad that said he posed the best chance of defeating Obama in the November election.
Both candidates will be in Michigan starting this week before the state’s presidential primary on February 28.
No official word has been issued about whether Gingrich or U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) will release ads in the state, or when they will do so, or when they will make appearances in Michigan. However, a Gingrich spokesperson told The Washington Post the campaign had no staff on the ground in Michigan and is focusing on the Super Tuesday states, having concluded an effort in Michigan would only draw away votes from Santorum, who the Gingrich camp would love to see topple Romney in Michigan.
While Romney had been expected to do well in Michigan, as a native son, the son of former Governor George Romney and winner of the 2008 primary, a big question mark leading to the general election had to do with his stance on the auto bailout for General Motors and Chrysler (which was begun under former President George W. Bush but completed under Mr. Obama) especially since he authored an op-ed in The New York Times that had a headline that said Detroit should go bankrupt.
On Tuesday, his op-ed in the News appeared where he spoke of being a native-born Detroiter, and getting his love “of cars and chrome and fins and roaring motors” from his father George, who was president of American Motors. After watching the auto industry flourish in the 1950s and 1960s, Romney said he had also “watched with sadness as it floundered.”
Romney said a managed bankruptcy for the two auto companies was the best way to go to restore them to economic health. Instead, he said Obama caved to “union bosses” and “rewarded them.”
He called the deal “crony capitalism on a grand scale,” and said the U.S. government should sell its shares in GM in a “responsible” way and repay the taxpayers.
In a conference call press conference, Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer said Michigan residents “nearly spit out their coffee” when they read the op-ed.
Granholm, who now hosts a cable television political talk show, said that Romney had “stabbed (Michigan) in the back in its darkest hour and we are not going to let him forget it.” The News op-ed was “shocking,” and “completely misleading,” she said, ignoring concessions union members took along with executives as part of the bailout.
Dingell said Romney, who “changes his positions as often as he changes his underwear and sometimes for less reason,” had ignored the turnaround the auto industry had shown. By attempting to claim now that he loved the state, he was being desperate.
And Levin said Romney ignored the fact that no private money was available in 2008 and 2009 for a managed bankruptcy and had the companies gone that route, they would have been forced to liquidate.
Schuette said Democrats were trying to hide the economic record of Obama.
And either a private bankruptcy or the public bankruptcy of the industry that occurred the results would be the same, he said, so Democrats have nothing to talk about.
ADS: In his TV ad, Romney is shown driving around the Detroit area while photographs are displayed of him as a boy in the state and with his father (and a photo of he and his wife Ann as a very young couple).
In the ad he also asks how the auto industry lost its future, and said Obama had done “all these things liberals had wanted to do for years.” He said millions are without work and many have lost their homes, and while not blaming Obama directly the implication was clear.
In his ad, Santorum, who polls show is now leading Romney among Michigan Republicans, said he is the best candidate to beat Obama. He is the most consistent conservative, along with having the most foreign policy experience, the ad asserts.
Neither ad mentions the other candidate, though a campaign adviser for Romney was reported to have said the campaign will focus on Santorum’s record with ear-marked expenditures in Congress and his lack of holding an executive position.
Santorum also unveiled a second ad that featured quotations from a number of different officials and commentators about his background and positions.
Schuette also said he did not believe the polls that show Santorum ahead. He said Romney was in a good position for the February 28 primary.
It was announced, meantime, that Santorum would appear at a “Faith and Freedom ” rally on Friday in Macomb County.
This story was provided by Gongwer News Service. To subscribe, click on Gongwer.Com
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