Transportation and Infrastructure

A union is attacking Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's opposition to the bailouts for the U.S. auto industry in Ohio.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees released a campaign commercial Monday criticizing Romney in Ohio, which is both a crucial general-election swing state and a Super Tuesday primary state where voters will head to the polls next week.

In the ad, titled "Romney's World," the AFSCME says Romney "would have turned his back on us in the depths of the recession.

"But he supported giving the banks billions in bailouts," the 30-second ad continues. "That's Mitt's world. Why would we want to live in it?" 

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum said Saturday that the GOP would be unable to contest the issue of government bailouts if they nominate former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney to challenge President Obama's bid for re-election.

Speaking at the conservative group Americans For Prosperity's forum in Troy, Mich., Santorum again criticized Romney for his positions on bailouts from the federal government to Wall Street companies and the U.S. auto industry.

Santorum said Romney supported bailouts for the financial sector, but not General Motors and Chrysler.

"I wasn't for bailouts...capitalism works," he said. "It takes time, but you've got to believe in it...What I don't understand is how some people would bailout Wall Street, but not Detroit."

Democrats might use the cars to paint Romney as out of touch, as they used McCain’s houses in 2008.

The adviser who helped President Obama craft the restructuring of the U.S. auto industry in 2009 criticized Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Friday for his opposition to the bailouts that were given to General Motors and Chrysler.

Romney is scheduled to give an economic speech Friday at Detroit's Ford Field stadium, but Steve Rattner, who led the Obama's administration auto task force in early 2009, said the former Massachusetts governor's speech would probably include wrong facts about the auto bailouts.

"When Mitt Romney takes the podium at Ford Field in Detroit today, he’s likely to include yet another sharp denunciation of the government’s rescue of General Motors and Chrysler," Rattner wrote in an op-ed published Friday in The New York Times.

"As a presidential aspirant, Mr. Romney evidently hasn’t felt a need to be consistent or specific as to what should have been done to address the collapse of the auto industry starting in late 2008," he continued. "But the gist is that the government should have stayed on the sidelines and allowed the companies to go through what he calls 'managed bankruptcies,' financed by private capital.' That sounds like a wonderfully sensible approach — except that it’s utter fantasy."

Liberal activist group MoveOn.org released a video Friday criticizing Republican president candidate Mitt Romney for his opposition to the bailout of the U.S. auto industry in 2008 and 2009.

The ad features a woman who says she works for Chrysler "thanks to President Obama's auto industry stimulus."

"During the financial crisis, I just couldn't find full-time work in Detroit," the woman says. "Now I work for Chrysler, just like my granddad did for 42 years.

"My hometown's on its way back," she continued. "Mitt Romney said 'Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.' I'm grateful our country didn't listen. We need a president who'll stand by us all when times are tough. Mitt Romney? He'd let America fail." 

A new poll shows Democrats and Republicans are sharply divided on the bailout of the U.S. auto industry, which has emerged as a central issue in the upcoming primary in Michigan.

The latest survey from Gallup showed 51 percent of 1,040 respondents said they disapproved of the assistance that was given to General Motors and Chrysler in 2008 and 2009 by the federal government. Among Democrats, 63 percent said they supported the auto bailouts, while just 25 percent of Republicans said they were in favor of the government loans.

Under both presidents Bush and Obama, the federal government gave Chrysler and GM more than $80 billion during the economic panic that began in the final stages of then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama's successful run for the presidency in 2008.

Although the bailouts began under Bush, Obama has received strong criticism for his handling of the issue from many Republicans. 

A Detroit newspaper editor is criticizing Mitt Romney's campaign for its selective editing of the paper's endorsement. 

A super-PAC supporting Obama is criticizing Romney in an ad in Michigan ahead of Tuesday's primary.

A new poll shows President Obama leading the GOP presidential field in hypothetical general-election match-ups in Michigan, in part because of the popularity there of the auto-industry bailout.

The latest survey from NBC News/Marist shows 63 percent of registered voters and 42 percent of likely voters in the state support the federal government's decision to assist General Motors and Chrysler in the fall of 2008.

Fifty-eight percent of registered Michigan voters gave Obama a good or great deal of credit for the turnaround of the U.S. auto industry, compared to 37 percent who said he deserved not very much or no credit at all.

The poll also shows Obama leading former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, the front-runners in Michigan GOP primary polls, by margins of 51 to 33 percent and 55 to 29 percent, respectively.

In the survey, Obama leads former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.) 56 percent to 28, and Texas Rep. Ron Paul 53 percent to 31.