Congress is considering whether or not to bail out America's big three carmakers. Our old friend Mitt Romney, in a well-argued piece for the New York Times, says they shouldn't. Now, he's from Michigan himself, and his father George made his fortune in the auto industry. So he knows of what he speaks, and he cares about it. But he believes that only by going bankrupt will the car companies be forced into the kind of restructuring that they need to survive the longer term.
Obama has suggested that he wants to appoint someone to oversee the industry's efforts to return to health. Given the timing and placing of his article, I get the impression Mitt thinks that person should be him. And why not?
If anyone could be effective in such a role, Romney could. Before his disastrous attempt to run for president as a true believing social conservative, he was renowned for being a highly competent, results-oriented go-to guy. As founder of Bain Capital he made millions by taking failing companies and putting them back on their feet. When Utah's Winter Olympics fell into a perilous financial hole he took over and turned the games into a massive and profitable success (actually maybe we should bring him to London). As governor of Massachusetts he took a non-ideological approach and passed major and highly-regarded health care reforms.
Given his talents and his family history, turning around the auto industry is in many ways a dream project for him. It would make it hard to run for president in 2012. But then a lot of smart Republicans think that might be a losing battle anyway, whoever runs from their side. It would give him something to do now he doesn't have a job, and would, if it worked, turn him into a hero in the rust belt. Obama would love the catch of a prominent Republican in his administration.
Go Mitt!
I think a lot of people might disagree with your assessment of Romney's time at Bain. Many saw him as a corporate raider or "deal flipper" (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/04/us/politics/04bain.html; http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/01/27/as_bain_slashed_jobs_romney_stayed_to_side/).
I agree with his op-ed, more or less. But I'm not sure I'd trust him to do the best for the little guy (and, despite the power of the UAW, I would say there are little guys to worry about here).
Posted by: L. | November 19, 2008 at 03:23 PM
Why would it make it hard for him to run in 2012?
Posted by: Rowland Manthorpe | November 19, 2008 at 03:24 PM
It would make a run against Obama harder because he would have been working for/with him for at least a couple of years. So he would have to engineer a massive falling out with him, which wouldn't be easy...
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Failure doesn't mean you are a failure,
It does mean you haven't succeeded yet.
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