Centerfield

Mitt: Liar, Liar, Pants On Fire

Mitt Romney has decided to lengthen his nose even farther in Michigan. Here's what his campaign says he said.

. . . "And as part of this, we will directly address and rectify the enormous product cost and capital cost disadvantages that currently burden the domestic automakers. From legacy costs, to health care costs, to increased CAFE standard costs, to the cost of embedded taxes, Detroit can only thrive if Washington is an engaged partner, not a disinterested observer. . . .

Now, I know that there are some people who don't think that there's a future for the domestic automobile industry. They think that the industry and its jobs are gone forever. And they're wrong. [strawman]

Let's leave Mitt's nice, straw-man-filled world for a second and return to our real one. Why were so many jobs lost? There's a clear and obvious primary reason: Detroit made many products that did less, were less reliable, and/or cost more than their competition. And they adapted worse and worse to changing conditions, even before pensions and healthcare became so much of their balance sheet. Toyota and Honda had to face higher CAFE and other standards, too - somehow they were able to grow their businesses anyway with clearly better products in more and more parts of the market. Giving and lending money, and research subsidies out the wazoo have all been tried - and here we are.

American Presidents have no ability to turf out senior management of the Big Three auto manufacturers and choose replacements up to their jobs. That's the only thing that could bring jobs BACK. And even then, not so many, because productivity per worker has risen, and bringing back as many jobs are were lost would lose their competitiveness.

Does Romney understand all these things I've been writing in this post? Youbetcha - he was a majorly successful capitalist. He knows he's lying.

One heartening bit about Romney's opportunistic change on moral questions and this story is that Romney's the least popular major candidate (item 12), despite his relative eptness and strong history of getting things done. The American electorate would seem not to be hopelessly stupid. He could win Michigan, because people in pain sometimes listen too much to fantasies, but he's going nowhere nationally. Moral: never get desperate about being President.