Excerpt: "In Ohio, newspapers are giving Mr Romney hell for his negative, and false, scare campaign about local auto jobs heading to China. That's hurting him."
- News Limited Network
- November 05, 2012
MITT Romney is finding out that you should never stand between an American and his American-made car.
As President Barack Obama closes out his re-election campaign in the car towns of the US, his Republican rival is under sustained attack from the media and autoworkers for falsely claiming US car jobs are headed for China.
It's now too late for Mr Romney to untangle himself from his comments on the car industry, which he followed with a damaging new campaign ad.
Both have cost him savage media coverage across Ohio, the swing state he most needs to win when America heads to the polls tomorrow.
US President Barack Obama arrives at a campaign rally in Dubuque, Iowa. Picture: AFP
It began last week in Defiance, Ohio, where General Motors makes engine blocks and crankshafts and pays $92 million a year in wages.
Mr Romney said that "one of the great manufacturers in this state, Jeep, now owned by the Italians, is thinking of moving all production to China".
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney with his wife Ann greet supporters during a campaign rally at the International Exhibition Center in Cleveland, Sunday Nov. 4, 2012. AP/Jerome Delay
Jeep, which is made by Chrysler in Toledo, an hour's drive west of Defiance, issued a statement repudiating the claim. It is instead in the process of adding more than 1000 jobs in a $500 million expansion of the Toledo plant.
Jeep said some of its Italian factories may move to China but American jobs were safe.
Mr Romney then compounded the problem with a new campaign ad, which states: "Obama took GM and Chrysler into bankruptcy and sold Chrysler to Italians who are going to build jeeps in China. Mitt Romney will fight for every American job."
Supporters wait to hear US President Barack Obama during a campaign rally in Dubuque, Iowa. Picture: AFP
This has become the defining story of the final days of the campaign, playing not just in Ohio but nationally, and is being seen as a test of Mr Romney's integrity.
Polling suggests Mr Obama will win Ohio, and some polls now claim he will pick up Florida - which Mr Romney had expected to win and needs badly if he is to have any hope.
Mr Obama has continually attacked Mr Romney for a 2008 opinion column in The New York Times, when he said that GM and Chrysler should not have been bailed out with federal government funds (Ford, in the end, did not need bail-out money).
Supporters with their faces painted in the colors of the US flag cheer for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in Colorado. Picture: AP
He said they should have been put into bankruptcy where they could be restructured with private money, or die.
Mr Obama is credited with initiating the $85 billion auto bailout, which saved the US car industry from collapse.
What the Obama campaign does not mention is that the President also put GM and Chrysler into a "quick-spin bankruptcy", in which the government managed the process and held equity in the companies.
US President Barack Obama waves at supporters during a campaign rally at Jiffy Lube Live in Bristow, Virginia. Picture: AFP
As part of its return to solvency, Chrysler formed an alliance with Italy's Fiat, which now owns most of the company.
But Mr Obama's bankruptcy approach has received little scrutiny in the media, probably because it was so successful, with most of the money now paid back.
Mr Romney has in recent days been caned by just about every newspaper in Ohio, with headlines: "Auto toxin", "Romney's GM and Chrysler Ads an insult to Ohioans", "Flailing in Ohio, Romney rolls out Jeep ploy" and "Obama helped when car makers needed it".
Mitt Romney, left, looks on as wife Ann introduces him at a campaign event at Colorado. Picture: AP
Early voting controversy ends in lawsuit
Florida state's Democratic Party meanwhile, has filed a federal lawsuit over long delays encountered by some voters who were unable to cast votes in southern Florida despite spending hours in line.
The controversy erupted over "in person absentee ballots" that officials in Miami Dade County said voters would be allowed to cast Sunday from 1 pm to 5 pm.
But after being open for barely an hour, the Miami-Dade office closed its doors around 2 pm, saying they were swamped by the unexpected high turnout.
The decision to cut short the vote led to an uproar outside the government office, where the Miami Herald reported nearly 200 people began shouting, "We want to vote!" "Let us vote!"
Hard cop backing for Obama
HOW do you call a race that's too close to call?
You call Barack Obama.
The numerous polls, which have both Mr Obama and Mitt Romney tied nationally, are now a distraction.
So too are the polls of the key swing states Ohio, Florida and Virginia.
Last week, Mr Romney had Florida. Yesterday, it was Mr Obama's. You can listen to the media but it's not the commentators that matter.
It's what appears on the front pages - the old-fashioned hard news.
In Ohio, newspapers are giving Mr Romney hell for his negative, and false, scare campaign about local auto jobs heading to China.
That's hurting him.
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