Interestingly enough, AutoNation CEO Mike Jackson believes that Romney would have done the same thing as Bush and Obama with rescuing the auto industry had he been in charge when the business was collapsing. The noise today is all about Romney stirring up the Republican voters and trying to get them to forget about Romney's moderate past. Had Detroit been allowed to fail, Jackson believes the results would have been catastrophic both for Big Auto as well as the overall unemployment rate in the US. CNBC:
LL: You were in numerous discussions during the crisis with the Auto Czar. We all know we were on the edge of a cliff and the cliff was crumbling. If Romney was President during that time and let the autos fail where would the US economy be right now? MJ: My belief is that if he was the President at that moment, he would have lead and acted as Bush and Obama did. However, if he had let GM and Chrysler liquidate—which would have dominoed and crushed the entire supplier system—we would have had a systemic shutdown of the entire US auto industry, millions of jobs lost, a depression and 20% unemployment.
