He had an editorial in the Detroit Free Press, attacking the auto bailout as "crony capitalism" and a giveaway to the United Auto Workers Union (UAW), etc.
This is a very risky strategy. I don't know at all if this is the way to go. This is Michigan that is so dependent on the auto industry. I get that Republican voters are a lot more conservative than the mainstream voters. Still even a conservative Michigan Republican has a good chance of either being or having a family member who is linked in some way to either the auto industry of the auto supplies industry.
It seems to me that Santorum may be pushing a much better line. He's a social conservative who is not always doctrinaire on economic issues. Romney has been hitting him on this, saying he sat down with Nancy Pelosi in Congress, etc, etc, but it seems to me that you can see a socially conservative Michigan Republican who nevertheless may not hate the bailout or even see it as a good thing.
Romney will be simply creamed in a general election in Michigan-indeed Obama has a huge lead against all three Republican candidates. If Romney tries to run against the bailout he'll be crushed. Really, with the red meat of his Wall Street Journal editorial called "Let Detroit Fail" you think he would not even want to bring this up with General Motors again the leading auto seller, 1 million jobs saved, and 160,000 new, well paying manufacturing jobs created.
To be sure, Romney is in trouble. He is trailing in Michigan and if he loses February 28 he could be in trouble on Super Tuesday the following week. His usual strategy of sicking his super pac on his leading rival while claiming he knows nothing about it isn't working for him right now either. I just don't know that this is the way to make it up.
Romney's rhetoric don't match the facts with regard to the bailout of the auto companies. As noted elsewhere, there was no private capital available on the scale necessary to finance a structured bankruptcy. This was shortly after Lehman's collapse. What Romney would have preferred is private equity firms lending money to the auto companies with the government guaranteeing repayment. That's crony capitalism, in my view. Unions gave many concessions prior to the bankruptcy, and gave up even more during negotiations during restructuring. In fact, Republicans in Congress demanded further union concessions before agreeing to the financing. Romney is upset because banks like JP Morgan and other creditors had to take a hair cut. The very same creditors that were just given boatloads of taxpayer cash in their own government bailout. See Brad's take here:http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2012/02/mitt-romney-rises-to-amazing-heights-of-incoherence-in-michigan.html
ReplyDeleteHey Nanute! Good hearing from you. Romney ought to not even speak about the bailout. To pretend it never happened would be his best choice.
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