During the 2012 presidential campaign, Republican Mitt Romney has spent quite a bit of time downplaying his 2008 New York Times op-ed discouraging a bailout of the auto industry. In response, and in addition to his campaign's fact-checking efforts, President Obama himself highlighted the former governor's position during the second presidential debate. Now, Politico has published an Ohio Romney ad declaring that he was in fact in support of the U.S. government's auto industry bailout.
The spot also seeks to turn around a weak point for Romney — his Times op-ed, headlined "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt" — and faults Obama.
"Who will do more for the auto industry? Not Barack Obama," the spot says. "Fact checkers confirm his attacks on Mitt Romney are false. The truth? Mitt Romney has a plan to help the auto industry. He's supported by Lee Iacocca and the Detroit News. Obama took GM and Chrysler into bankruptcy, and sold Chrysler to Italians who are going to build Jeeps in China. Mitt Romney will fight for every American job."
Romney has frequently said that the auto bailout was actually the type of bankruptcy process he was referring to and claimed credit for the process in the spring, but backed off for months after Ohio newspaper editorial boards dinged him for it.
Watch the commercial that aired in Toledo below:
Read more at Politico.