Obama: Romney taking credit for auto bailout an 'Etch A Sketch' moment

President Obama slammed Mitt Romney as having "one of his Etch A Sketch moments" when the presumptive Republican nominee said earlier this week that he would "take a lot of credit for the fact that [the auto] industry's come back." 

"Well, you know, I think this is one of his Etch A Sketch moments. I don't think anybody takes that seriously. People remember his position, which was, 'Let's let Detroit go bankrupt.' Had we listened to his advice at that time, GM and Chrysler would have gone under and we would have lost probably a million jobs throughout the Midwest," Obama told ABC News. 

The remark was an underhanded jab at Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom's comment in March that the governor could reset "like an Etch A Sketch" for the general election after the primary was over. Democrats have seized on that remark to paint the former Massachusetts governor as opportunistic. 

Romney made his comments on the auto industry Monday while campaigning in Cleveland. 

"My own view, by the way, was that the auto companies needed to go through bankruptcy before government help. And frankly, that’s finally what the president did. He finally took them through bankruptcy. That was the right course I argued for from the very beginning," Romney said. 

The presumptive Republican nominee went on to say that the auto unions had made the recovery harder and delayed implementing his plan. 

"It was the UAW and the president that delayed the idea of bankruptcy. I pushed the idea of a managed bankruptcy and finally when that was done, and help was given, the companies got back on their feet. I’ll take a lot of credit for the fact that this industry’s come back," Romney said. 

Romney's characterization of the auto bailout drew a quick rebuke from the Obama campaign, which noted that Romney had stated his explicit opposition to federal aid for General Motors and Chrysler while campaigning in Michigan earlier this year. 

Democrats have argued that without some $80 billion in federal loans opposed by Romney, the Detroit automakers would never have had a shot to recover from their crippling debt. The Obama campaign has repeatedly pointed to a 2008 op-ed penned by Romney carrying the headline "Let Detroit go Bankrupt" — and Romney's opposition of the federal loan program — as evidence Obama was a better steward of the auto industry. 

"Mitt Romney may think he can fool the American people by hiding his belief that we should 'let Detroit go bankrupt,' but the American people won't let him," former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland said in a statement released by the campaign. "His comments today that he will 'take a lot of credit that the [auto] industry has come back' are a new low in dishonesty, even for him. Mitt Romney seems to think Americans will just forget the past and his very vocal and clear opposition to the successful auto rescue." 

But the Romney campaign has begun to argue that the president essentially adopted Romney's plan for managed bankruptcy. 

"His position on the bailout was exactly what President Obama followed,” Fehrnstrom said at a forum late last month. “He said, ‘If you want to save the auto industry, just don’t write them a check. That will seal their doom. What they need to do is go through a managed bankruptcy process.’ ” 

“Consider that the crown jewel,” Fehrnstrom said. “The only economic success that President Obama has had is because he followed Mitt Romney’s advice.”

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