The irony is, as recently as August, General Motors and Chrysler desperately wanted to be left out of the 2012 political debate. Indeed, both manufacturers, saved from collapse by President Obama's policy, didn't even want the candidates making campaign stops at their plants.
But Mitt Romney didn't leave them with much of a choice. He forced the companies to intervene.
The Republican lied about Chrysler moving Jeep production to China. After learning the truth, Romney turned the lie into a television ad. Reminded of the truth, he expanded the ad buy. Told once more that he was lying, Romney created an insanely dishonest radio ad on the same subject.
Yesterday, Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne felt it necessary to tell his employees that Romney's lying. Soon after, General Motors did the same thing.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has broadened his attack on President Barack Obama's auto industry restructuring, implying that General Motors used the aid to hire more workers in China than in the U.S. [...]
"We've clearly entered some parallel universe during these last few days," GM spokesman Greg Martin said. "No amount of campaign politics at its cynical worst will diminish our record of creating jobs in the U.S. and repatriating profits back to this country."
Look, I understand why Romney's lying. When the American auto industry was on the brink of collapse, President Obama stepped up with a rescue plan, and Romney insisted the plan would fail. Romney was wrong; Obama was right. In states like Ohio and Michigan, few issues matter more -- hundreds of thousands of jobs were on the line.
Romney has run out of ways to explain his failure, so he's lashing out with demonstrable falsehoods. The Republican knows the claims aren't true, and he's aware of the fact that knowledgeable people realize he's lying, but Romney assumes regular folks are fools, and won't know the difference. If he wins, the ends will justify the means.
