President Obama is hitting Mitt Romney for his opposition to the $80 billion bailout of the U.S. auto industry in his campaign's first ad in Michigan.
“When the auto industry faced collapse, Mitt Romney turned his back,” a narrator says in the Obama ad, called “What He Said.”
“President Obama took a stand for American jobs ... and Michigan’s auto industry is back,” the ad continues.
“So remember what Mitt Romney said, and what President Obama did,” the Obama ad concludes. It then shows a clip of Romney saying, "Let Detroit go bankrupt," which is the title of an op-ed he wrote for
The New York Times in 2008.
Democrats have hit Romney over his stance on the auto bailout, claiming he would have let U.S. auto companies go under, costing jobs.
But Romney has accused Obama of misrepresenting his position on the bailout, arguing that he favored a “managed bankruptcy" for Chrysler and General Motors and suggesting Obama eventually followed his advice.
Chrysler and GM did go through a managed bankruptcy, but it included $80 billion in aid from the government that Romney opposed. The Obama campaign argues only the federal government would have provided that aid to the companies amid the financial crisis in early 2009, and that no banks would have stepped up to the plate.
For more on Obama's ad, click here.
