Romney Camp Defends Auto Bailout Ad
“What is there that’s false?”
Source: youtube.com
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A Mitt Romney aide defended a campaign television ad focusing on the assertion that Chrysler is preparing to build Jeep trucks in China.
The ad has drawn widespread charges of being misleading, for providing the impression that the company would move U.S. manufacturing to China, when in fact, it’s keeping the domestic workforce expands even as it builds vehicles overseas.
Obama “sold Chrysler to Italians, who are going to build Jeeps in China,” the ad states, hitting the president for allowing the auto companies to go bankrupt, without mentioning that Obama also provided financial assistance to help them restructure, or that the plan is to build new Chinese plants for the Chinese market.
The campaign’s defense: The ad is literally true, whatever its implications.
“What’s in there that’s false? Are they building Jeeps in China or not?” an aide asked BuzzFeed, breaking the campaign’s silence on the ad. “I think a lot of Ohioans are wondering why we can’t make Jeeps here and ship them to China, just like they are wondering why we can’t make — insert product here — in this country and export them to China.”
Ads providing less-than-full context are nothing new in campaigns, but this one has drawn additional scrutiny due to Romney’s claim last week that Chrysler was moving all Jeep production to China — a charge leveled by conservative bloggers misconstruing a Bloomberg report,, and heatedly denied by the company.
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- Bubbamagnet thinks Romney Camp Defends Auto Bailout Ad is Fail & WTF
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prescottarchibaldw 6 months agoI agree with this entirely. Things should be made wherever it makes sense to make them. When you start banging the protectionist drum, as both presidential candidates have this cycle, you explicitly reject this argument. In light of the narrative thus far, it’s totally reasonable to talk about the protectionist view, even if you and I find it personally ridiculous. As far as a protectionist is concerned, every Jeep built in China is a Jeep that was not built in the US, even if it’s ultimately for Chinese consumption.
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- bena13 thinks Romney Camp Defends Auto Bailout Ad is Fail
- Romney Camp Defends Auto Bailout Ad is starting to get hot on Twitter Tweet It
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Trubador 6 months agoLook, we just had debate where they question was asked why don’t U.S. companies make products in the U.S. Obama stated in those debates we need to encourage U.S. manufacturing. Now a U.S. company he practically gave way is making product in China. So it’s a legit question to ask why Jeep isn’t making extra product here for export elsewhere instead of setting up shop in China. Its not like we don’t have an excess labor pool these days (fancy way to say lots of unemployed people).
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prescottarchibaldw 6 months ago
They could still theoretically build Jeeps in the US to ship to China, no?
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prescottarchibaldw 6 months ago
system issues caused the following message to appear as its own post rather than a response: I agree with this entirely. Things should be made wherever it makes sense to make them.
When you start banging the protectionist drum, as both presidential candidates have this cycle, you explicitly reject this argument. In light of the narrative thus far, it’s totally reasonable to talk about the protectionist view, even if you and I find it personally ridiculous.
As far as a protectionist is concerned, every Jeep built in China is a Jeep that was not built in the US, even if it’s ultimately for Chinese consumption.
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