If Mitt Romney had gotten his way, General Motors would not be reporting its largest profit ever today.
The automaker, which has wrested the title of world’s largest back from Toyota, made $7.6 billion in 2011, up 62 percent from 2010. Full-year revenue rose 11 percent to $105 billion.
There was one dark cloud: G.M. lost $747 million in Europe, where it is speeding up a restructuring of its Opel brand.
The company says union workers will get $7,000 profit-sharing checks.
Romney ought to get a sack of coal for saying in a now-infamous 2008 New York Times op-ed piece that Detroit automakers should be allowed to fail. The Bush and then the Obama administration stepped in and an estimated 1.4 million jobs were saved.
Romney is attempting a curious and potentially risky strategy in the run-up to the February 28 Michigan primary: He is criticizing a bailout that saved state’s most vital industry when speaking to Tea Partiers and other conservatives and saying on the other that he might have provided direct loans to automakers had he been president when speaking to independents.
The former Massachusetts governor has, of course, flip-flopped on numerous issues, but never so quickly or within the confines of a single state as he has on the question of bailouts. And in the past he also has said that while he wouldn’t support bailouts, he might back ideas like guaranteeing car warranties.