Problems keep mounting for Mitt Romney. Since his defeat in three primaries a few weeks ago, he is now trailing Rick Santorum in the latest Michigan primary polls by roughly 4%. This is a huge problem for Gov. Romney because he was born and raised in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, an affluent suburb of Detroit.
Part of this may be due to an op-ed he wrote back in 2008 when the American automotive industry was on the brink of collapse. Published in the New York Times, the piece was titled "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt." Uh oh. Considering how far the industry has come since its dark days, and how important the industry is to the state's economy, it's no surprise that Mitt is having to eat those words.
In Romney's defense, the title of the article is a tad misleading. I think that most readers of that headline would infer that Romney thought that General Motors and Chrysler should be liquidated, with millions of jobs being lost in the process. This would be called a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, where all assets are sold and the business officially closed down permanently. What he actually proscribes is a structured, Chapter 11 bankruptcy. A Chapter 11 bankruptcy entitles a corporation to restructure the business so that it will be able to become profitable again. Either way the federal government was going to be involved, it was just a choice of whether it was the Judicial or Executive branch.
Regardless of what the actual details are, Mitt Romney is in a very dangerous position. Being from western Pennsylvania, Santorum can at times be very effective when communicating with blue collar workers. Many of the voters in Michigan's primary will be those types of people. Being a multimillionaire who has the appearance of being out of touch with many voters will not score Romney any points in this primary.
Sources:
-Mitt Romney's NY Times Op-Ed
-Michigan Primary Polls
-Information on Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
Part of this may be due to an op-ed he wrote back in 2008 when the American automotive industry was on the brink of collapse. Published in the New York Times, the piece was titled "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt." Uh oh. Considering how far the industry has come since its dark days, and how important the industry is to the state's economy, it's no surprise that Mitt is having to eat those words.
In Romney's defense, the title of the article is a tad misleading. I think that most readers of that headline would infer that Romney thought that General Motors and Chrysler should be liquidated, with millions of jobs being lost in the process. This would be called a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, where all assets are sold and the business officially closed down permanently. What he actually proscribes is a structured, Chapter 11 bankruptcy. A Chapter 11 bankruptcy entitles a corporation to restructure the business so that it will be able to become profitable again. Either way the federal government was going to be involved, it was just a choice of whether it was the Judicial or Executive branch.
Regardless of what the actual details are, Mitt Romney is in a very dangerous position. Being from western Pennsylvania, Santorum can at times be very effective when communicating with blue collar workers. Many of the voters in Michigan's primary will be those types of people. Being a multimillionaire who has the appearance of being out of touch with many voters will not score Romney any points in this primary.
Sources:
-Mitt Romney's NY Times Op-Ed
-Michigan Primary Polls
-Information on Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
tl;dr
ReplyDeleteI must say that Mitt Romney's position definitely looked great a couple of weeks ago but all of a sudden Santorum has taken over. The fact that he doesn not look like he is going to win in his own home state is a really bad sign for him because the home state is always ideal.
ReplyDelete