'An insult to Ohioans': Romney auto lies draw brutal headlines

Mitt Romney keeps getting deservedly hammered for his outrageous ads claiming that Chrysler and General Motors are moving jobs to China because of President Barack Obama's actions and that Romney, unlike Obama, would fight these moves. Being rebutted in thorough, humiliating fashion by Chrysler and GM was bad, but having newspaper editorials across Ohio and Michigan, the states whose voters he was trying to scare into vote for him, take up the issue has the potential to magnify that damage.

According to a Toledo Blade editorial, "the Re­pub­li­can nom­i­nee is con­duct­ing an ex­er­cise in de­cep­tion about auto-in­dus­try is­sues that is re­mark­able even by the stan­dards of his cam­paign." The Youngstown Vindicator calls Romney's ads "an insult to Ohioans" which suggests that Romney "believes the voters of Ohio are not sophisticated enough to separate fact from fiction." Then there's the Cleveland Plain Dealer, which uses descriptions like "flailing" and "recklessly" and "masterpiece of misdirection."

Jonathan Cohn offers something else that points to the scale of Romney's error:

Irony of Romney's auto gambit: Chrysler, GM tried to stay out of presidential race, denied requests to use factories for events...
' @CitizenCohn via web Way to go, Mitt!

While most of the discussion of Romney's lies has revolved around the simple fact that Chrysler and GM are investing in creating jobs in the U.S., Marcy Wheeler points to another problem with these attacks:

China'and Japan and Korea'still protect their markets, meaning if you want to sell there, you've got to make cars there.

Mitt has promised to get tough on China. But his series of auto ads have made no mention'not a peep!'of how he'll reverse this practice and make it possible for Jeep to export cars made in Toledo. Indeed, when Obama launched a trade dispute over auto parts in September, Mitt scoffed at the effort (and ignored Obama's decent and sustained effort launching trade disputes, one of which pertaining to specialty steel recently won at the WTO).

But Romney was never honest about his views on trade, and he's certainly not going to start being honest about that now as he doubles and triples down on his commitment to full-throated lying about the auto industry.

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