Obama's auto bailout, which saved lots of jobs in Ohio, is a big reason for his lead in the crucial state. Knowing he needs to win the state to win the White House, Romney released an ad which makes a number of attacks on Obama which are technically true but are quite misleading.
He attacks Obama for taking Chrysler and GM through bankruptcy, which Romney supported. Obama's approach to bankruptcy was objectively better than Romney's as Obama's would actually work; Romney said it should have been funded by private capital, which, like all of Romney's proposals, sounds great in theory but doesn't work out in reality, since no private group was willing to lend the companies besides the government.
Romney boasts of being supported by former Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca and the Detroit News. So a rich guy and a conservative paper support him. That's nice. But they are associated with Detroit, and if they like him, that must mean he's good for the auto industry, or something.
The ad also implies that Chrysler is moving Jeep production to China, when in fact they are adding new production to build Jeeps in China to be sold in China.
It pains me to admit, but it's a great ad. While the main points of the ad fall apart on close inspection, most voters aren't going to give it any sort of inspection. At this stage of the game, it's tough to refute these sorts of "not technically false but definitely misleading" attacks. When the candidates are debating and sitting for interviews and such, these things can be picked apart. At this point, it's easy for such things to slide by without being challenged.
1 comment:
Short run, the bailout was great politics. Long run, bail outs create massive rent seeking behaviors and risk taking, which will lead to more bankruptcies and bailouts down the road. The only people Obama (and Romney) save via bailouts are the rich.
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