Romney: I'll take a lot of credit for auto industry success.

[ajb]

Romney's trying to thread a very fine needle here, taking credit for part of the Bush-Obama approach to the auto industry crisis (the decision to let the car companies go bankrupt), while blaming other parts of the Bush-Obama approach, like lending the car companies money before they filed for bankruptcy. Moreover, he placed greater emphasis on the blame side of the equation during the primary, and has now fairly abruptly shifted emphasis to the taking credit side.
You'd think he'd take advantage of the opportunity to tie Obama to Bush here -- if Obama was wrong, then so was Bush, and you'd think it would be a smart move for Romney to say that his business experience gave him a clarity on the issue that neither the current nor the former president had. Maybe he's afraid that Republican voters won't like being reminded that the bailout of the auto companies began as an executive order under President Bush?
Of course, the tricky needle-threading here really has to do with claiming to know which part of the policy actually implemented actually worked, and which part was a hindrance. I suspect voters are likely to feel that, since GM and Chrysler are doing much better now, that the plan worked, and are more likely to credit the president who supported the plan while president-elect, and continued to implement it when he became president, than the guy who supported parts of the plan, but opposed other parts, and who had nothing to do with its implementation, since at the time he was a once and future presidential candidate who held no position of responsibility.