GOP Attacks Chrysler Ad; Mitt Romney Wanted Detroit to go Bankrup in 2008 (For 2/6/12)

During the Super Bowl, Chrysler aired a Super Bowl ad, known as "half-time in America" starring Clint Eastwood. It highlighted Detroit's recovery from the financial crisis. Republicans such as Karl Rove criticized President Obama for robbing taxpayers to give free advertising to automakers that his adminstration bailed out in 2009 for a total of $12.5 billion. Just as significant, Mitt Romney wrote an editorial in 2008, "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt." He argued that Detroit Automakers would continue to lose jobs and global market share due to product deficiencies. They have labor and pension costs that are too much for the market to handle. Therefore, he thought they did not deserve the bailout they got. However, much of the problems Detroit Automakers had resulted from the financial crisis that hit the stock market that year and rising healthcare costs during the last ten years. When all people nationwide lost much of their savings due to the September 2008 stock market crash, they cut back on big items such as new cars. All of sudden, the revenues of General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler dropped sharply in late 2008. Since one in ten American jobs is linked to these manufacturers, there was public pressure for a bailout in early 2009 after Wall Street got theirs. When Romney wrote this editorial, America was losing 700,000 to 800,000 jobs per month and headed for a Second Great Depression. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/us-election/9065539/US-Election-2012-Clint-Eastwood-defends-himself-over-political-Chrysler-Super-Bowl-ad.html http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/19/opinion/19romney.html