How Mitt Romney's Ohio ad featuring a "closed" Chevy dealership owner SHOULD backfire ...

[zbdent]

So Romney has the ad which has a "former" auto dealer (Lyndhurst Ohio) saying that, due to Obama's incompetence/meanness/whatever, he was forced to close his dealership.

Simple reaction to that could likely be:

"So, for this guy to 'stay open', you would have the entire Chevrolet/auto industry shut down and EVERYBODY ELSE go out of work?"

"Obama's mean, he made ME lose MY job." (Not an exact quote, just the general theme of the commercial) - Please talk to a "government union" employee about politicians trying to kill your job for political gain.

[LiberalFighter]

1. GM was going to castrate the sob before it all happened.

[susanna]

2. Something else that might have happened

GM To Cut 1,100 Underperforming Dealerships
May 15, 2009

One day after Chrysler announced massive dealership closings as part of restructuring, General Motors did the same.

GM began to tell 1,100 low-volume dealers they are not part of the struggling carmaker's long-term plan.

General Motors Corp. announced Friday that it will slash dealerships by nearly 20 percent, closing some 1,100 sales outlets as the troubled automaker faces a government-imposed deadline for restructuring. The move comes a day after rival Chrysler announced its own plans to close hundreds of dealerships. (more at link)

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104196352

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I worked in the auto industry for 20 years. GM was behind the curve on this one - they had never trimmed their dealer network, even as their market share plummeted over the years. I would bet that the guy in the Rmoney commercial was one of those affected. Bottom line, GM knew they needed to do it, and couched it as restructuring due to government deadlines as an excuse to "not be the bad guy." The government had very little to do with it, if anything. It was GM's own incompetence and failure to act when they should have (years earlier). That's always been my take on it, anyway.

[susanna]

3. Yup - he was one of those targeted by GM.

Your post intrigued me, so I poked around a bit to see the ad. Found this at Daily Kos:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/08/01/1115644/-Romney-Campaign-blunders-auto-bailout-attack

So how GM's long-overdue decision to streamline its dealer network became the government's fault is still completely lost on me.

On edit: read some of the comments on the article, too...more background information on the dealership owner in the ad.