With all of the negative advertisements it’s interesting that Romney isn’t mentioning his rivals at rallies; instead he’s set his sights on Obama. At a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Romney told of crowd of around 700 that “Almost everything he’s [Obama’s] done has made it hard for the economy to rebound. This is not a president who deserves a second term,” and that, “It shouldn’t come as a surprise, this president received hundreds of millions of dollars from unions and he’s been doing their bidding ever since,” and because of this "Michigan has really suffered."

However, some of Romney’s statements might come back to haunt him, particularly his position regarding unions. “I’ve taken on union bosses before, and I’m happy to take them on again, because I happen to believe that you can protect the interests of American taxpayers, and you can protect a great industry like automobiles without having to give in to the UAW, and I sure won’t.”

Obama has already responded to some of Romney’s accusations. In a speech in Milwaukee he told the crowd at Master Lock, “When I took office, the American auto industry was on the verge of collapse. And there were some folks who said we should let it die," but that, "With a million jobs at stake, I refused to let that happen." Many consider this to be a swipe at Romney’s positions, portraying him as a job killer.

It is a carryover from Romney’s work with Bain Capital. His company would bankrupt corporations after leveraging them for hundreds of millions of dollars in loans, which they used to pay themselves dividends.  Nearly one-quarter of all the companies Bain Capital invested in were forced into bankruptcy.

Santorum is now receiving an outpouring of money to match his meteoric rise. Donations over the past 2 weeks have exceeded all of 2011. Some individual donations have exceeded $10 million dollars. He currently has a double digit lead in Michigan with 39 percent of the vote compared to Romney’s 24 percent, and is also beating Romney in Ohio with 36 percent compared to Romney’s 29 percent. Michigan is not only Romney’s home state, but it is the state where his father, George Romney, served as a three-term Governor.

It would be embarrassing for Romney to lose Michigan, a state he won in 2008. Michigan’s primary will be held on Tuesday February 28th, while Ohio’s primary is part of a 10 state contest known as Super Tuesday, which will occur on March 6^th.
rfriend@lakecounty-sentinel.com or follow us on Twitter @LCSPolitical
POSTED 02/16/2011 13:20