Obama: GOP would have left auto industry 'out to dry'
UAW President Bob King, left, and President Barack Obama address a UAW event Tuesday. (Saul Loeb / Getty Images)
GM, Chrysler alive because of federal help, president says
By David Shepardson Detroit News Washington Bureau February 29, 2012 at 1:00 am
Washington — President Barack Obama delivered a fiery speech to more than 1,600 current and retired autoworkers Tuesday, and issued his strongest challenge to a Republican rival on the $85 billion auto bailout.
"There were no private investors or companies out there willing to take a chance on the auto industry. Nobody was lining up to give you guys loans," Obama said during a rousing 25-minute speech, directly rebutting the idea that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has suggested. "Anyone in the financial sector can tell you that."
Romney has argued that GM and Chrysler could have been saved if they had immediately been required to go through bankruptcy — a point that Obama and others have rejected.
"If we had turned our backs on you, if America had thrown in the towel, GM and Chrysler wouldn't exist today. The suppliers and distributors that get their business from those companies would have died off, too. Then, even Ford could have gone down, as well," Obama told attendees of the United Auto Workers Community Action Program.
Without action, Obama said, "production: shut down. Factories: shuttered. Once-proud companies chopped up and sold off for scraps. And all of you — the men and women who built these companies with your own hands — would've been hung out to dry."
Romney's campaign blasted Obama, but didn't directly address the criticism.
"President Obama has failed Michigan. On his watch, thousands of Michiganders have lost their jobs, homes and businesses. No other candidate cares for Michigan or the automotive industry like Mitt Romney does, and he is heartbroken to see what has happened to his native state," said Amanda Henneberg, a Romney campaign spokeswoman.
Obama offered no insights on when the government might sell its remaining 26.5 percent stake in GM, or its majority stake in Detroit auto and mortgage lender Ally Financial Inc.
In late 2008, President George W. Bush in the final days of his term agreed to spend $25 billion to save GM, Chrysler and their finance arms. Obama added about $60 billion to the auto bailout, put GM and Chrysler through bankruptcy, and forced a tie-up between Fiat SpA and the Auburn Hills automaker.
The Republican National Committee issued a statement noting that the Treasury Department has estimated it will lose $23.7 billion on the auto sector bailout.
Romney has called the bailouts a sweetheart deal for the UAW because a UAW health care trust fund received a majority stake in Chrysler and a 17.5 percent stake in GM as part of the bankruptcy reorganizations. He said he would have taken Chrysler and GM through bankruptcy earlier and made guarantees on warrantees to help raise financing to help the automakers through bankruptcy.
Obama said Republicans wanted to see unions like the UAW shrink.
"This notion that we should have let the auto industry die, that we should pursue anti-worker policies in hopes unions like yours will unravel — it's part of that same old you're-on-your-own philosophy that says we should just leave everyone to fend for themselves," Obama said.
Obama took aim at Romney's criticism of the UAW and quoted Romney's November 2008 commentary in the New York Times headlined "Let Detroit go bankrupt."
"It's been funny to watch some of these politicians completely rewrite history now that you're back on your feet," Obama said. "These are the folks who said if we went forward with our plan to rescue Detroit, 'You can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye.' Now they're saying they were right all along. Or worse, they're saying that the problem is that you, the workers, made out like bandits in all of this; that saving the American auto industry was just about paying back unions."
UAW President Bob King hailed Obama "for saving our jobs and saving our industry."
In a Detroit News interview, King called Romney's suggestion "baloney" that private investors would have funded bankruptcy reorganizations of GM and Chrysler.
"There was no private money available, and Romney knows it, and that's what's frustrating," King said.
Obama told the UAW about his effort to crack down on unfair trade. "Today, I'm creating a Trade Enforcement Unit that will bring the full resources of the federal government to bear to investigate and counter unfair trade practices around the world, including by countries like China.
"American workers are the best workers on Earth, and when the playing field is level, I promise you — America will always win," he said.
Chris Christie little help vs. Obama in N.J., poll finds 2/29/12 Having Gov. Chris Christie as his running mate would strengthen Mitt Romney’s bid against President Barack Obama in New Jersey, but not enough to help the Republican candidate catch up to the president in the Garden State, according to a new poll Wednesday. In a general election match-up that doesn’t take into consideration the vice presidential candidates, Romney would trail the president 49 percent to 39 percent in New Jersey, a Quinnipiac University survey of the state’s voters found. With Christie as his running mate, Romney would fare slightly better in the state, but still fall short of catching up to Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, 49 percent to 43 percent. “Putting [Christie] on the ticket helps the Republicans a little, but not enough, in New Jersey. If the measure of a vice presidential pick is carrying his or her home state, then Gov. Christie comes up short,” said Maurice Carroll, the director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. [...] * Report: Cop demoted for Obama T-shirt http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0212/73430.html Report: Graham apologizes to Obama http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0212/73428.html * http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0212/73429.html [with comments]
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Michigan and Arizona: Bruising GOP Primaries Brighten Obama’s Prospects
cdn-media.nationaljournal.com/?controllerName=image&action=get&id=15304&format=homepage_fullwidth President Barack Obama AP Photo/Susan Walsh
Obama is in better shape in both states since the GOP circus came to town, with higher favorable ratings than before and with an elevated profile among key constituencies, like blue-collar voters and women who have new appreciation of his handling of the auto bailouts and the contraception issue. The bruising primary campaigns didn’t elevate Obama all by themselves. The slightly improving economic picture helped. But the tone and substance of the GOP primaries gave Obama newfound traction that, for now, has led to a big lead in Michigan and a dead heat in Arizona.
In Michigan, where Mitt Romney eked out a victory, an NBC News/Marist poll has Obama up [ http://assets.democrats.org/pdfs/2-28-12-DNC_Memo_Arizona_Michigan_Primary.pdf ] 18 points over Romney (51 percent to 33 percent). In 2008, Obama won Michigan by 16 points. After underwhelming poll numbers in the fall—Romney led Obama 46 percent to 41 percent in an EPIC/MRA poll in mid-November—Obama’s prospects have brightened considerably in Michigan and it may be harder now for the GOP to consider it a potential swing state.
Democrats do consider Arizona a potential swing state, despite Obama’s 9-point loss there to Republican Sen. John McCain four years ago and despite the fact that Arizona has backed a Democratic presidential candidate only once since 1948—Bill Clinton in 1996. New polling puts Obama in the running in Arizona and Democrats believe GOP positions in favor of the state’s tough immigration law will energize Hispanic voters and create turnout problems for Republicans in November.
During the primaries, Romney embraced Arizona’s tough immigration law and its use of police searches of suspects thought to be undocumented. He also described a process of “self deportation” that would occur if undocumented workers cannot keep jobs because of tighter identification screening. Lastly, Romney has said he would sign only a part of the so-called DREAM Act, which provides a path to citizenship for undocumented residents who serve in the U.S. military. That’s a narrower commitment than the underlying legislation, which would also provide a path to citizenship for undocumented residents who pursue a college diploma.
“These extreme positions are going to haunt him should he make it to November,” wrote Democratic National Committee spokesman and strategist Brad Woodhouse in a memo seeking to identify GOP weaknesses after Arizona and Michigan.
Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said that in both states Republicans have been hurt by the “echo chamber” primary in which attacks have dominated and the challengers have spent more time positioning around and against each other than explaining their plans for the future. “It’s a party talking to itself, not independent voters,” LaBolt said.
In Michigan, Romney and Santorum’s opposition to the GM and Chrysler bailouts—started by President George W. Bush but enlarged and managed by Obama—has cost Republicans support not only among auto workers but among owners and employees of small businesses who depend on the economic activity that the Big Three generate. “Any day Romney is talking about autos is a good day for us,” LaBolt said.
Woodhouse said Romney has lost ground in Michigan that he’s unlikely to regain. “Mitt Romney has badly damaged himself with the working- and middle-class voters who make up Michigan’s electorate,” he said. “If Mitt Romney had his way, GM and Chrysler’s doors would be closed today and the American auto industry would no longer exist.”
The fight the Republican candidates picked over the Obama administration’s handling of a controversial contraception ruling also wound up as a big plus for Obama the candidate. The administration's negotiated agreement appeased Catholic employers who had objected to paying for contraceptive services, while Republicans, particularly Santorum, who personally opposes the use of contraceptives and some prenatal testing for birth defects, were left struggling to defend positions largely out-of-step with the lifestyles of moderate women and independents.
Late last year, Obama’s support dropped among women, but his standing with them has improved in recent weeks, as the economy inched upward and the birth control issue became a bigger part of the debate, according to polls by the Associated Press-GfK [ http://news.yahoo.com/obama-gains-women-jobs-social-issues-help-204133448.html ].
While Republicans have been competing in Arizona and Michigan, the Obama campaign has been stepping up its voter-identification and mobilization efforts. The reelection campaign already has eight offices in Michigan—in Detroit, Grand Rapids, Warren, Pontiac, Ann Arbor, Flint, Lansing, and Kalamazoo. In Arizona, three offices are open in Phoenix, Flagstaff, and Tucson. Another will open soon in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale and will focus on Hispanic outreach.
The campaign is also aggressively organizing voter-registration drives and social events to contact new voters. From now until March 31, the reelection has 73 such events scheduled in Detroit, 22 in Grand Rapids, and 59 in Ann Arbor. The same kind of grassroots activity is planned in Arizona. From now until April 22, the campaign will conduct 69 organizing events in and around Phoenix. The Tucson area will have 40 events between now and March 29, and Flagstaff will host 16 between now and March 20.
“Unlike every other president, President Obama didn’t let his election organization go away,” LaBolt said. “He has kept his supporters actively engaged. The goal is to persuade new people and turn up participation.”
The movement in the polls in Arizona and Michigan in Obama’s direction suggests some of that work is being done by Republicans. A whole load of it, in fact.
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