Another Romney Gaffe - Wife Has 2 Cadillacs

Leading GOP Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney cannot stop flaunting his wealth and finds new ways to show how out of touch he is with average Americans.  In a speech on Friday in Detroit, Michigan, the city home to the auto industry that he wanted to go bankrupt, he said that his wife Ann drives two Cadillacs.  Mitt said he has a Ford Mustang and a Chevy pickup truck.  But, in a recent poll, 71% of registered voters believe Romney cannot see the economic realities that average Americans  currently face.  He lived in Michigan in his youth and his father successfully led this state as its Governor.  But, that is meaningless to unemployed workers in Michigan, which has one of the highest rates of unemployment in the country.  While someone pursuing the Office of President should be very successful, a man of his wealth ought to do much more in terms of charity or philanthropy than he does in order to connect with people of average income.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/The-Vote/2012/0224/Another-Mitt-Romney-clunker-Ann-drives-a-couple-of-Cadillacs-actually

Law Firm Office Representing in GM in Bankruptcy Hosts Romney Fundraiser

Mitt Romney's campaign held a fundraiser last week in New York at the law firm office of Weil, Gotshal, & Manges, which got wealthy off of fees from GM to represent it in bankruptcy.  Even though Romney opposed the bailout of GM and Chrysler to save the auto industry, he could not pass up an opportunity to get his hands on more money for his campaign.  This lust for money can best be described as a type of personal profiteering that is more ruthless than the business practices of Wall Street Banks, since they invested nothing to bail out the auto industry.

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/02/16/427288/romney-fundraises-office-gm-bankruptcy/

Romney: Private Sector Should Have Bailed Out Carmakers, But Bain Didn't Invest (for 2/21/12)

Mitt Romney thought that the private sector should have bailed out GM and Chrysler to save the American auto industry in 2009.  Romney thought those companies should have been liquidated, not reorganized in bankruptcy proceedings.  No private investors, not even Bain Capital, stepped up and provided the needed capital.  While Romney was not at Bain when this happened, the knowledge he gained there should have told him that investors would not step up and bail them out.  But, the Obama Administration went ahead and bailed out them out.  Romney surely wanted to break the unions and make the Detroit's auto workers take deep cuts in any bailout of the industry.  He would not care about the damage it does to Detroit's economy. This will make many voters, especially those in Detroit, reconsider Romney's private sector experience as a strength of his.  If the private sector does not step up and hire unemployed Americans, it makes the public suspicious of any candidate who touts his private sector experience.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/02/21/1066929/-Mitt-Romney-says-auto-bailout-should-have-come-from-the-private-sector-But-Bain-refused-to-invest-?via=siderecent

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