As you’ve heard a million times by now, the outcome of the presidential race hinges in large part on Ohio. And with only eight days to go, President Obama is leading there by around two or three points, according to poll averages. Mitt Romney isn’t giving up just yet, but his latest TV ad shows how desperate his situation is.
Unlike with most campaign ads, the Romney campaign didn’t announce this one or put it on its YouTube page, and with good reason: It’s totally embarrassing, particularly this passage:
“Obama took GM and Chrysler into bankruptcy, and sold Chrysler to Italians who are going to build Jeeps in China. Mitt Romney will fight for every American job.”
Mitt Romney also supported bankruptcy for GM and Chrysler, a widely known fact that Romney has acknowledged throughout the campaign, including during the second and third debates, which were watched by a combined 126 million people.
Chrysler was sold to “the Italians” — a.k.a Fiat — to save it from collapse, leading to what the Times has called “one of the most remarkable turnarounds in the annals of American business history.”
And “the Italians” are building Jeeps in China, but not at the cost of Jeep production or Jeep jobs in America, as the ad implies.
The Romney campaign’s defense is that none of these are outright lies. Which is true! They are just completely misleading, irrelevant, or context-free claims which would persuade only the most gullible and/or uninformed swing-state voters. Which tells you what Mitt Romney thinks of Ohio.
