Name:   lotowner - Subject:   Yellow Dog Democrat's Rationale Date:   9/28/2011 8:52:43 AM

Give Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney credit for brashness if not for honesty in his Michigan campaigning over the weekend.

"The president is unprepared," Romney said Saturday to a state whose economy relies heavily on General Motors and Chrysler. "He just didn't understand how the economy really works. My experience was in the private sector."

Both Romney and fellow candidate Rick Perry sounded the same theme in 2008, when they wrote op-ed pieces warning against a bailout of the auto industry.

Fortunately, President Barack Obama ignored their advice when he took office. Despite political cries of socialism, Obama pushed through an $80 billion bailout of bankrupt GM and Chrysler. Both companies since have become rare bright spots in an otherwise bleak economy. The bailout saved an estimated 1.5 million jobs, according to a study by the Center for Automotive Research.

Moreover, the U.S. government has so far recouped all but $14.3 billion of the investment. It was by far the most cost-effective effort the government took in combating the recession