Lt. Gov. Cherry Lays The Smack Down. Mitt Romney, You've Been Served

Yesterday, in a stunning slap in the face to the big Mitten, Mitt Romney, former GOP presidential hopeful who claims ties to this state, decided he didn't want to be friends with the automakers anymore. In his Op-Ed to the New York Times, Romney wrote:

The American auto industry is vital to our national interest as an employer and as a hub for manufacturing. A managed bankruptcy may be the only path to the fundamental restructuring the industry needs. It would permit the companies to shed excess labor, pension and real estate costs. The federal government should provide guarantees for post-bankruptcy financing and assure car buyers that their warranties are not at risk.

In a managed bankruptcy, the federal government would propel newly competitive and viable automakers, rather than seal their fate with a bailout check.

It must be easy to say to hell with the automakers, when you're rich. It doesn't take much to throw people under the bus, when those people don't include yourself. There were so many outraged people in Michigan yesterday that I think the entire state had to take a Xanax so it didn't collectively stand up, walk to wherever Mitt was, and slap him across the smarmy little face of his.

But to ease our woes, our Lieutenant Governor, John Cherry, decided to take his words to the same street Mitt was playing on and wrote his own letter to the NYT:

In Michigan today, unemployment reached a 16-year high as a direct result of the nation’s economic downturn. Mr. Romney’s suggestion that our economy would be best served by a Big Three bankruptcy is a breathtaking assertion of economic Darwinism made more shocking by his roots in Michigan, where hundreds of thousands of jobs rely on the auto industry.

The Center for Automotive Research reports that if one of the Big Three ceased operations in 2009, nearly 2.5 million jobs would be lost in the first year. Additionally, one year of bankruptcy would result in the loss of $125 billion in personal income, $17 billion in Social Security receipts and $20 billion in personal income taxes.

Nonetheless, bankruptcy advocates like Mr. Romney would pile these kinds of losses onto the shoulders of a nation already struggling under the weight of record mortgage foreclosures, a recessionary slowdown across economic sectors, a credit crunch and decreasing global demand for American products.

There are no human benefits to Mr. Romney’s you’re-on-your-own approach, only continued loss of jobs, homes and health care for millions of people.

A bankruptcy in the auto industry will cripple our economy and worsen the human toll of our current economic challenges.

Now is not the time for Mr. Romney or his supporters in Congress to advocate for experiments with intriguing financial techniques on some grand scale. It is time to work cooperatively on a solution that invests in security for American workers and in our technological strength.

I think you've just been collectively slapped, Mr. Romney. And by the way, your ties to Michigan have been revoked. Don't count on us for a nomination in 2012. (Not that you could count on me anyhow.) In fact, don't visit, don't write and don't come to our door at 3 a.m. looking for forgiveness. The fact is we're sick of your passive-aggressive ways, Mitt. Either you're a Michigander at heart who knows what a bankrupt Detroit 3 would mean, or you're not, and we're not going to stand for this abuse anymore.

Mitt...take your things and stay the hell away from us.

And his other choice was to?

Romney has decided to formally endorse McCain.

WHOOPEDIDO.

I mean, he had to do it to further his political career. He had no choice, really. I guess he could have dropped out of politics all together, but what are the odds of that? Slim to none and slim packed his bags and is waiting for the 4:30 bus out of town.

And nobody wins

Well, not quite, but had more Dems voted Democrat in yesterday's primary in Michigan, Hillary would have been in even more of a hurt than she is now.

As it turns out, Hillary, though she "won" the "primary," only managed to get 55% of the Democratic ballots. Almost 40% of the people casting Democratic ballots voted for nobody. NOBODY. That means almost half the people who felt compelled to vote Democratically thought Hillary was a waste of their time. Vewy intewesting....

Notably,

Had Michigan voters been allowed to choose between all the serious contenders for the Democratic nod, CNN's exit poll found, Obama would have won the African-American vote by a 73-22 margin over Clinton.

In other news, Mitt "From the Mitten" Romney won the Republican primary here. I just can't see that momentum doing anything for him anywhere else, though. Sorry, Mitt. (What a dumb name, anyhow.)

And how did I vote you ask? I could give you the DadGrace/MomGrace standard answer of not telling you because, after all, it is a secret ballot. But I'll spoil it for you: I voted in the Republican Primary for Rudy Guiliani. What? Heresy! Yes, it's true--and I felt dirty the entire way. But the only hope I had of upsetting the balance in the force that is the Republican party was not to vote Democratically. Sad, but true. Thus, I cast a vote for someone who I don't despise, but who also doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell. And yet, it didn't do anything anyhow--what I thought would happen, did happen.

Eh, what can you do?