Mitt Romney in Shortest Way Home, by Pete Buttigieg

On Budget & Economy: 2008: auto industry bankruptcy would force modernization

Obama used it as a cudgel against his opponent, Mitt Romney, who had opined against the bailout in a 2008 op-ed entitled "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt." In 2008, that had been the safe position to take, but by 2012 voters understood that bold action had been needed. The tables had turned, and now Romney was left trying to explain away his previous view. His campaign actually tried to take credit for the bailout he had once opposed. A campaign spokesman said of the structured bankruptcy: "Mitt Romney had the idea first." To be fair, Romney was making some nuanced & sensible points in his article about the need for Detroit to modernize, but events had disproven his bottom-line 2008 prediction: "If GM, Ford & Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye."