Romney's Muddy and Muddled Message in Michigan

The Michigan primary is still almost two weeks away but the mudslinging has already begun – literally. Hoping to maintain his recent lead in the polls, Rick Santorum has launched a pre-emptive attack ad against Mitt Romney, depicting the Michigan native as a bumbling Rambo who, in the process of shooting mud balls from an assault weapon at Santroum, ends up soiling himself.

Romney is certainly no stranger to negative ads but for now he is trying to regain his home advantage by emphasizing his Michigan roots—never mind that he has lived in five states since he left Michigan and his primary home now is listed outside of Boston. He is airing a new ad called "Growing Up," which shows him driving through Detroit's abandoned neighborhoods while reminiscing about life in Detroit when he lived there. He concludes by saying: "I want to make Michigan stronger and better. Michigan's been my home, and this is personal."

At the same time that Romney is emphasizing his Michigan roots, he is hanging tough to his opposition to the auto bailout, even calling it "crony capitalism on a grand scale" in a column this week in The Detroit News. I appreciate that Romney is trying to borrow a page from Ron Paul's book, but it is completely unclear to me why the bailout is an example of "crony capitalism." Last time I checked, the providers of capital – the secured bondholders – got royally screwed while unions made out like bandits. If he is looking for insulting labels, wouldn't it be more accurate to call the bailout "crony unionionism"?

But setting that aside, it is striking that Romney is not backing away from his anti-bailout message. In fact, The Detroit News op-ed pretty much echoes his 2008 New York Times column, "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt." No doubt this is partly because Romney has already tapped out his quota of flip-flops for this election season and fears—correctly—that one more flip-flop might cause Michigan voters to flip and him to flop. But here's what I really don't understand. Romney says in The News column:

The dream of the Motor City is and always has been one of ideas, innovation, enterprise, and opportunity. It started with Henry Ford and continued with visionaries like William Durant, Walter Chrysler, and the Dodge Brothers. These giants never envisioned a role for government in their business, but relied on the hard work and commitment of private individuals.

Their dream is alive in all of us who have ever called Detroit home. And with a Detroiter in the White House, that dream can be realized once again.

But if he is opposed to the auto bailout and all the heroes he mentions "never envisioned a role for government in their business," then why would it matter to Detroiters that a Detroiter is in the White House? Isn't the whole point of limited government and free markets to make the White House occupant completely irrelevant to the success of an industry?

Comments

[Ska]

Foist.

[Name Nomad]

The mainsail? The jib? The spinnaker? You’ll need to be more specific.

[*]

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[Curly]

Why, soitenly!

[Moe]

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[Larry]

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[DK]

… “crony unionionism”?

Is this a shot at the one and only Onion?

[A Serious Man]

I dislike Romney, but I really really hate Santorum. Paul needs to do both of them a favor and bust out ads attacking Shitorum for his record of big government spending and corruption. Romney doesn’t have the clean hands to do that like Paul does.

[juris imprudent]

Hell Paul should just remind everyone that he never lost a re-election bid by 18 fucking percentage points.

[Ken Shultz]

But if he is opposed to the auto bailout and all the heroes he mentions “never envisioned a role for government in their business,” then why would it matter to Detroiters that a Detroiter is in the White House?

I suspect the overwhelming majority of people in Michigan who are offended by his opposition are already knee deep in the Democratic Party. If he were running as a Democrat, that would be a lot more dangerous.

Oh, and this should be the difference between libertarians and everyone else–Republican and Democrat voters want someone to represent their interests in Washington; libertarians want someone to let us represent ourselves.

[Umbriel]

Well, the logic could be that a Detroiter, never envisioning a role for government in business, would work to shrink government once he got into the White House.

But yeah, that’s essentially crap. The non-Paul Republican candidates can pay as much lip service as they like to “small government”. None of them are credible uttering the words.

[Terr]

Finger off the trigger.

[db]

I came here to say this.

[Gojira]

Maybe someone can air a commercial showing that photo next to Dukakis in the tank.

[Fatty Bolger]

You know that’s not actually Romney, right?

[Episiarch]

That ad sounds really, really dumb.

shooting mud balls

Yeah…it’s Santorum, dude.

[Gojira]

Maybe you can help me out. What the FUCK was that going on in the immigration thread earlier with the multi-language posts?

[Ska]

Oh man, was WI being a retard again?

Wait, let me specify: was he spamming the same wall o’text in various languages over and over again?

[Episiarch]

Like Ska, I would guess it was what he says. Did the webmaster delete it?

[Gojira]

Yes it’s the same screed posted over and over in multiple languages, and no, it hasn’t been deleted. They’re all still there.

[Konfounded Kristen]

That picture is reminiscent of Dukakis-in-tank

[Leftist Behavior]

psst…It’s not mud that gun is shooting.

[anon]

It’s Santorum?

[Res Publica Americana]

Romney sucks, but Christ, Santorum’s a reprehensible piece of shit. I hope he stops gaining soon and plummets.

[UCrawford]

Nobody in the GOP race matters. I think Obama would have to get caught knifing an underaged hooker to lose this race. That’s how weak his competition is.

And I’m okay with that as long as the GOP retakes the Senate. They’re assholes, but they’re at least not HIS assholes.

[Pro Libertate]

He’s proven himself to be incompetent. None of the others have, as idiotic as most of them are. There’s some indication that our mild nonrecovery recovery might be short lived, too, which is another ten coffin nails for the Obama presidency.

[Commonist]

“He’s proven himself to be incompetent.”

No, he’s just not a libertarian. Not a single one of Obama’s critics really has a case against him, seeing as they can’t explain what they’d do better.

All libertarian whining about Obama is essentially metaphysical – “deficits are bad so Obama is bad, bailouts are intrinsically sinful so Obama is dumb, government is bad and since Obama doesn’t hate government like us he is incompetent”.

Obama has done wonders with what he’s been given, and you should be grateful he has more power than people like you.

[yogi]

but Christ

Christ’s understanding of secularism and individual liberty is superior to Santorum’s. Are you suggesting a write-in candidate that bible-thumpers and libertarians might agree upon?

[juris imprudent]

I don’t know, maybe the Republican Party and the socons would finally learn after delivering the greatest electoral and popular vote majorities in history to Obama.

[Res Publica Americana]

I’m still holding out for the hope that Paul pulls a thermonuclear rabbit out of his monocle case and wins somehow.

[yogi]

Last time I checked, the providers of capital ? the secured bondholders ? got royally screwed while unions made out like bandits. If he is looking for insulting labels, wouldn’t it be more accurate to call the bailout “crony unionionism”?

Screwing the bond-holders was lawless and chilling. But bailing out the union pension funds was partly crony capitalism in that it stopped the automakers from hemorrhaging money, for a little while, to meet their union contract obligations.

[Cytotoxic]

I don’t like Romney, but I thought Shikhia was being nitpicky here.

[jasno]

Can we start talking about how the GOP is going to regain congress instead of how it’s going to lose the presidential race?

[UCrawford]

That’s the only political bright spot I see in 2012. At least seeing Obama develop an ulcer dealing with two hostile houses of Congress promises to be amusing. Anyone want to make a bet on how long it takes him to take up smoking again after the election? 🙂

[juris imprudent]

Congress might even pass a budget with Reid kicked back to minority leader (if not put out to pasture).

[UCrawford]

You know, the more Mitt Romney talks, the harder it is for me to care about anything the man has to say. He’s just a rotten presidential candidate. He carries all of the worst baggage a GOP candidate could possibly have…he talks about small government with absolutely no credibility, he supported Obamacare style legislation before Obama did, he has the body language and profile of a stereotypical country club snob, he doesn’t say anything particularly noteworthy on any topic, and he tries so hard to be everything to everyone that he ends up being nothing to anyone.

Why the fuck is this guy even a consideration for anyone? At all. He can barely keep Rick Santorum at bay and that guy’s 90% crackpot.

Looks like I’ll be throwing my vote away on Gary Johnson this year. Assuming I can even bring myself to waste my time voting.

[The Pointer-Outer]

At least he doesn’t cheat on his wife, so he has _one_ decent quality.

[rather]

How do you know?

[yogi]

because Obama stopped smoking.

[TomD]

But if he is opposed to the auto bailout and all the heroes he mentions “never envisioned a role for government in their business,” then why would it matter to Detroiters that a Detroiter is in the White House?

Because Mitt wants to have his cake (purported principles) and eat it (democratic bullshit) too.

[BoscoH]

Apparently, that is “mud” in those commercials. Not what I imagined when I heard Santorum was behind them.

[Eduard van Haalen]

I can’t believe I’m defending him, but he’s basically saying he’s a hometown boy, he feels their pain, but he’s willing to show some tough love and not pander to them.

The problem is how Michigan-y he really is.

[ryan]

You went with ‘Romney’ instead of ‘Mitt’..?

[?]

Can we start talking about how the GOP is going to regain congress instead of how it’s going to lose the presidential race?

Either Romney or Surging Butt Guy will depress actual-conservative turnout so much, the Rs will wind up a minority in both houses.

For gridlock, we need NOOT. He’d lose too, but the crankier Rs would show up to vote, just to show a little respect for a legendary hate(d) figure who kinda used to be cool.

[yogi]

“For gridlock, we need NOOT.”

If NOOT were nominated, Obama would promise a moon colony with 26,000 inhabitants, not just 13,000, as NOOT has proposed. Done in 4 years, not 8. Then NOOT wood promise a moon colony with 52,000 inhabitants in 2 years. Then Obama would promise a moon colony with 104,000 inhabitants in 1 year.

[The Pointer-Outer]

Mitt’s father, George Romney, ran American Motors for several years… and HIS company never got a bailout.

[dunphy]

awesome. luv me some PCSO

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_n…..o-his-boys

[I.E.]

“Last time I checked, the providers of capital ? the secured bondholders ? got royally screwed while unions made out like bandits.” No. Bondholders provide debt, not capital, which is basic finance.

“If he is looking for insulting labels, wouldn’t it be more accurate to call the bailout “crony unionionism”?” Yes, but he wants to win an election.

[Ken Shultz]

No. Bondholders provide debt, not capital, which is basic finance.

Pardon, but didn’t the UAW end up with approximately 40% of the equity in the new GM?

Let’s look at the original statement you quoted:

“Last time I checked, the providers of capital ? the secured bondholders ? got royally screwed while unions made out like bandits.”

Now, let’s look at what happened to GM and Chrysler’s bondholders:

However, bondholders of both Chrysler and GM rejected the debt swap offers, complaining of unequal treatment compared to the UAW, citing that their outstanding debt was more than double that of the UAW’s health care trust. The UAW had been offered 50% and 40% stakes in the new Chrysler and GM, respectively, while the bondholders would have received 33 cents on the U.S. dollar.

http://tinyurl.com/7hco29l

So, the bondholders were owed twice as much as the UAW–and the debt the bondholders’ were holding was eventually converted into equity for the UAW…

Looks to me like, “The providers of capital ? the secured bondholders ? got royally screwed while unions made out like bandits” is A-OK.

[anon]

OT: WHY/HOW the FUCK did this republican primary BECOME SOLELY ABOUT FUCKING BIRTH CONTROL AND ABORTION!?!?!?

[Res Publica Americana]

Go take a look at the number of people that voted for Obama in 2008, and that’s the minimal number of morons, unwitting or otherwise, that live beside us. And it’s probably at least double that.

Expect people to vote retardedly.

[Tony]

Unlike all those geniuses who voted for Palin.

[Just Dropping By]

Because the economy is improving, so the Republicans are going to switch to going after Obama on culture war grounds. (See, e.g., Bob Dole in 1996.)

[Ken Shultz]

Because there’s a struggle going on for what the Republican Party is all about.

In one camp, you’ve got what used to be the Tea Party impulses, and in the other you’ve got the cultural conservatives. If the cultural conservatives in the Republican Party want the candidates to feel indebted to them, then they need to make the primaries about culturally conservative issues.

Also, South Carolina and Florida were early in the primaries, and when the storm blows through that part of the country, it picks up a ton of hot hair early in Florida and South Carolina, especially.

[Warren]

I appreciate that Romney is trying to borrow a page from Ron Paul’s book, but it is completely unclear to me why the bailout is an example of “crony capitalism.” Last time I checked, the providers of capital ? the secured bondholders ? got royally screwed while unions made out like bandits. If he is looking for insulting labels, wouldn’t it be more accurate to call the bailout “crony unionionism”?

I understand the point you’re trying to make. But crony capitalism is a perfectly cromulent term even if the cronies aren’t financial institutions.

[Hadley V. Baxendale]

Having a Detroiter in the White House is supposed to mean having someone in the WH who will allow the freed market to work there, thereby allowing Detroiters to use their ingenuity and grit to rebuild the city (in theory).