Obama to tout auto bailout on Michigan primary day

President Obama plans to tout the auto-company bailout the same day as the Republican primary in Michigan. 

Obama will speak at the United Auto Workers community action conference, White House deputy press secretary Josh Earnest said Friday. 

"He will discuss the steps we took to get our economy back on track, including saving the American auto industry, which has created approximately 200,000 new jobs since the spring of 2009,” Earnest said.

Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum both opposed the auto bailouts, something they've tried to explain to Michigan voters. Democrats have tried to capitalize on their opposition by charging that both candidates wanted the auto industry to fail.

Santorum has worked to paint Romney as hypocritical for supporting the Wall Street bailout but opposing the auto bailout. Romney, meanwhile, has stood by a 2008 op-ed he wrote for The New York Times called "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt," while trying to explain why a managed bankruptcy for Chrysler and General Motors would have been better than a federal bailout that left taxpayers on the hook. 

On Thursday, Obama's reelection campaign joined the Michigan presidential ad wars with a television spot accusing the Republican field of turning their back on the Detroit autoworkers by opposing the bailouts. 

"Made in America. For generations of Michigan autoworkers it’s more than a slogan; it’s a way of life," says a voiceover in the ad. "But when a million jobs were on the line, every Republican candidate turned their back."