DAYTON, Ohio – Taking his campaign into car country, President Barack Obama touted his from-the-start support of the auto industry bailout, contrasting it with what he said was Mitt Romney’s shifting position on the issue.
Highlighting what is a popular topic in this swing state, where one in eight jobs is tied to the auto industry, Obama joked that his Republican opponent had “Romnesia” in Monday night’s debate when he said he would have helped car companies avoid bankruptcy during the 2009 auto crisis.
“If you said that you love American cars during a debate, you’re a car guy – but you wrote an op-ed titled, ‘Let Detroit Go Bankrupt’ – you definitely have a case of Romnesia,” Obama said as he spoke to a crowd of 9,500 at a public park here.
Seeking to characterize his opponent as untrustworthy, Obama said, “Last night Gov. Romney looked you right in the eye, looked me in the eye, tried to pretend that he’d never said, ‘Let Detroit go bankrupt.’ Tried to pretend he meant the same thing I did when we intervened and worked to make sure management and workers got together to save the U.S. auto industry.”
“Pretended like somehow I had taken his advice,” Obama said.
But, he continued, “People don’t forget. The people of Dayton don’t forget. The people of Ohio don’t forget,” he said.
The president returned to the White House after his Dayton event; he heads Wednesday to Davenport, Iowa where he kicks off another two days full of campaign events.
