Rick Santorum Ad Says Romney 'Did Nothing For Michigan Workers'

Santorum Ad: Romney 'Did Nothing For Michigan Workers'

Rick Santorum's campaign came out Friday morning with a new ad hitting Mitt Romney for opposing the auto bailout in late 2008, ignoring the fact that Santorum also opposed the bailout.

But it's the language on screen in the ad that's the more curious aspect.

"Romney did nothing for Michigan workers," the text reads in yellow letters superimposed on top of a picture of a man in a hard hat, with Romney's face jutting into the other half of the screen.

What does that mean? What could Romney have done? He was out of political office, in no position to do much more than offer his opinion publicly, which he did. The typical line from Democrats in attacking Romney's opposition to the bailout has been that he said Detroit should be left to "go bankrupt."

So it's a clumsily delivered attack by Santorum's campaign. But in the end, that probably won't matter too much, since the bigger point will still get through to most voters.

"He supported the Wall Street bailouts for his buddies but did not support the bailouts for the auto industry," said Santorum spokesman Hogan Gidley. "It's a lack of principle and a lack of character on his part."

Romney's argument is that he supported a managed bankruptcy for the auto companies, which eventually was the course that President Barack Obama took. The real dispute is whether a managed bankruptcy financed by private sector money would have been possible late in 2008, when capital was largely frozen.

Watch the ad here:

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