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Auto bailout looms large in Michigan poll showing Obama lead
President Obama leads Republican Mitt Romney 48 percent to 42 in a new poll that finds the auto bailout is a major factor for the state's voters.
Fifty percent of respondents in the new poll from the Detroit Free Press said the auto bailout was a deciding factor in their vote. Obama won the support of two-thirds of those votes, the paper said.
Michigan has been seen as a likely win for Obama — no Republican presidential candidate has won the state since 1988. But Romney sees Michigan as a home state. His father was a former governor and the CEO of American Motors.
But Romney in recent days has made a move for Michigan, where some polls have suggested the race has tightened. Obama on Thursday went up with his first ad in Michigan, which emphasizes the $80 billion bailout of General Motors and Chrysler. The ad also criticizes an op-ed Romney wrote for The New York Times in 2008 headlined “Let Detroit go bankrupt.”
Romney has accused Obama of misrepresenting his position on the auto bailout, arguing that he favored a “managed bankruptcy” for the car companies and suggesting Obama took his advice. GM and Chrysler did go through a managed bankruptcy, but it included government aid opposed by Romney. Obama argues the government was the only source of aid for the companies at the time, as no banks would have offered loans in the midst of the financial crisis.
The issue has particular resonance in Michigan because the companies that received the bailout, General Motors and Chrysler, are based in Detroit.
