As if former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney doesn’t have enough on his plate today with news that Democrats are urging Democrats to vote for anti-Romney candidate former Sen. Rick Santorum, Santorum going after him, and news that Santorum is doing robocalls designed to get Democrats out to vote for the former Pennyslvania Senator: href=”\http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/02/president-obama-delivers-barnburner-to-uaw-dings-romney-and-santorum.php?ref=fpa”> now he has President Barak Oama lambasting Romney in a speech at the UAW in convention in Washington. And clearly Obama has the passion Romney lacks:
“I’ve got to admit, it’s been funny to watch some of these politicians completely rewrite history now that you’re back on your feet,” Obama told a UAW convention in Washington. “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!”
The alternative to federal help, Obama said, “was to do nothing, and allow these companies to fail. In fact, some politicians said we should. Some even said we should ‘let Detroit go bankrupt.’”
The line was a clear reference to Romney’s 2008 New York Times op-ed “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt,” in which he suggested the companies go through a managed bankruptcy process.
“You remember that,” Obama added. “You know.”
While Romney and Santorum are at each other’s throats in Michigan, Obama was taking advantage of being unopposed — transforming into the od, electrifying candidate that Democrats remember and that the GOP has been aching to replicate.
Obama’s allusions to Romney came just as the former Massachusetts governor faces criticism from other Democrats, the local press and even some Republican supporters in Michigan for his confusing bailout position. Romney claims he would have saved the auto industry as president, but has not specified exactly how much government help — if any — would have been needed to do so.
And TPM offers this video:
The theme of a timid Romney keeps popping up so it will become part of his image. NBC’s First Read, for instance, has this:
*** Trying not to offend: It’s truly astonishing that Romney is acting as if he’s so concerned about alienating some conservatives that he won’t even challenge Santorum on the “snob” comments regarding college education. And if Romney is that fearful about standing up to Santorum, what does that say about his personal leadership qualities? As many folks have remarked over the last few days, the lack of agility of Romney as a candidate has been on full display these last 72 hours. His primary campaign has been about not offending anyone on the right. And if Romney loses tonight, he’ll have that strategy to thank.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.