Mexican Mitt says,"I am a Son of Detroit"

This morning Michigan was greeted with an op-ed by Mitt Romney where he opens with "I am a Son of Detroit" and goes on to wax nostalgic about American cars. Then he morphs into his Bain Capital persona and takes about structured bankruptcy and how Obama may have saved the auto industry but he didn't do it the right way. The right way would have been to "stand up to unions."

The reaction from Michigan was spontaneous. In local papers, Mitt was hammered because he promised in 2008 to do everything to save the auto industry but readers were reminded that he essentially said,"Detroit drop dead," when it came time to back the bailouts. Michigan Republicans also remembered Romney promising in the Republican primaries last time the urgency of saving the auto industry and they aren't forgetting it either. That may be why Santorum is polling strong in every county of the states.

The wording of Romney's op-ed is bloodless, which is the problem with his whole candidacy. You can't talk to people who were facing oblivion and argue in abstract terms for structured bankruptcy and explain in Bain Capital speak the benefits of this for an industry. If the auto industry had gone down,it is estimated that it would have cost over 1.5 million jobs throughout the supply chain and would have wiped out the remains of our manufacturing base. And whatever the benefits of the Bain approach to the CEOs of the auto industry it is not clear the industry would ever have come back.

Mitt has been trying to out-Teabag the Tea Party with his pandering. But campaigning against unions, especially in the industrial Midwest, seems to me to ignore the recent rise in union mobilization to counter anti-union measures by Kasich in Ohio, Walker in Wisconsin and Snyder in Michigan.

The Romney campaign has clearly drawn the line on class warfare. From his tinny "Corporations are people too, my friends" to today's op-ed, Romney clearly favors his own class at the expense of almost anyone else.

While the creator of Mexican Mitt, an ad lampooning Romney as the most Mexican candidate, didn't err when he referred to Romney as "Juan Percent".

But the working class hero Rick Santorum muffed his opportunity today by saying that President Obama sided with "the 99% over the 1%", which in normal times is what Presidents are supposed to do.

What emerged in yesterday's Pew Poll was something that I missed but other bloggers picked up. The war against contraceptives has hurt the Republicans badly. President Obama has a 59-38% in support by women over both Romney and Santorum. This is the largest gender gap ever recorded in modern political history. And the more the Republicans pay with the healthcare issue it will widen.

As an amusing sidebar--Reverend Rick Warren of the Saddleback Ministries tweeted that he would go to jail to protest President Obama's ruling on health insurance companies covering contraceptives. So, why doesn't he turn himself in to the California authorities because his state has had the same provision in its laws since 1991. While we're at it, isn't time the USAID funding for his group stop? I mean he should be a profile of courage and not tweeted his bravado.

Michael Gerson writes in the Washington Post an op-ed claiming that Obama's ruling is an epic blunder. Epic blunder for white Catholic males, maybe, but what about the female majority in the country and everyone else? Even the Catholic institutions affected support the Obama compromise, which is in line with almost all state laws.

If the GOP wants to make contraceptives a wedge issue, this one will not play for them but against them in a Big Way. Even Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins supports Obama on this, since Snowe backed a similar bill in 2001.

It escapes me why men should have the final say in this issue but I guess I am not for patriarchy.

Gallup released its Economic Index today. 42% of Americans say the economy is getting better, while 54% say worse. This is--believe it or not--the best figure since September 2010.

About the political battle over the President's budget. The President's budget outlines his priorities and his desire to end tax breaks for the extremely wealthy and those earning above $250,000. It also outlines his domestic priorities and establishes his agenda for the election. The Beltway pundits talking about gimmicks and all the rants about its lack of seriousness miss one important fact--no presidential budget has ever been passed--0--and it is the objective of President budgets to outline where he wants the country to go.

I think the GOP are walking into another trap on this one as Paul Ryan wants to submit another one of his crazed budgets. If you want to run against Medicare, Social Security and contraceptives, be my guest.