“He [Romney] was willing to let Detroit go bankrupt.”

–Vice President Joe Biden

This statement is drawn from a headline–“Let Detroit Go Bankrupt”– on an opinion article written by Romney for The New York Times. But he did not say that in the article.

In the article, Romney argued that if the automakers “get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won’t go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed.”

As Romney put it, “Detroit needs a turnaround, not a check.” In many ways, it was very much a business consultant’s approach to the problem—what earlier in the year he called a “work out.”

It is also important to note that although “bankrupt” often conjures up images of liquidation, Romney called for a “managed bankruptcy.” This is a process in which the company uses the bankruptcy code to discharge its debts, but emerges from the process a leaner, less leveraged company. 

Ultimately, along with getting nearly $80 billion in loans and other assistance from the Bush and Obama administrations, GM and Chrysler did go through a managed bankruptcy. But many independent analysts have concluded that taking the approach recommended by Romney would not have worked in 2008, simply because the credit markets were so frozen that a bankruptcy was not a viable option.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/election-2012/wp/2012/09/06/fact-checker-did-romney-really-say-let-detroit-go-bankrupt/?hpid=z2

2016: Obama's America, directed by Indian-American conservative author and commentator Dinesh D'Souza, has been a surprise box office success in the US this summer. As of last weekend, it had taken $26.2m (£16.3m), behind only Michael Moore's anti-George W Bush polemic Fahrenheit 9/11 in the pantheon of US political documentaries.

D'Souza's film argues the president's political instincts are anti-American – allegedly due to the influence of his supposedly anti-colonialist Kenyan father, Barack Obama Sr. It warns that a second term for the Democratic candidate after November's presidential election could change the country for good, and ends with the statement: "The future is in your hands."

Obama's re-election team hit back on Wednesday with an online post via the campaign website BarackObama.com. "That his writings and film are based on lies should not come as a surprise to anyone given D'Souza's long history of attempting to add a veneer of intellectual respectability to fringe theories, conspiratorial fear-mongering, and flat-out falsehoods," it reads.

"Right-wing author Dinesh D'Souza has recently released 2016: Obama's America, a movie that falsely smears President Obama as having a hidden agenda bent on realising 'anti-colonial' ambitions'," the post begins, before quoting a series of poor verdicts on the film and its director's previous work across a range of media.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/sep/12/obama-documentary-president-team-film

So he decided to call out the president.  Only the president wasn’t available, so he spoke to the chair instead.

And it turns out that [clint] Eastwood regrets it.

When asked what troubles him most (in his life, we suppose), his answer was “I guess when I did that silly thing at the Republican convention, talking to the chair.”

And he’s not too pleased with what he sees these days — that “nobody wants to work.”

“That’s the p-ssy generation,” he said.

He’s also displeased with people complaining of racism.

Everybody’s walking on eggshells. We see people accusing people of being racist and all kinds of stuff. When I grew up, those things weren’t called racist. And then when I did “Gran Torino,” even my associate said, “This is a really good script, but it’s politically incorrect.” And I said, “Good. Let me read it tonight.” The next morning, I came in and I threw it on his desk and I said, “We’re starting this immediately.”

He isn’t thrilled with Trump, but will choose him in the end if only to avoid having to choose Hillary.

“It’s a tough voice to listen to for four years,” he said of Hillary, then conceded that choosing between her and Trump is “a tough one, isn’t it?”

He doesn’t agree with everything Trump says — “He’s said a lot of dumb things,” Eastwood said — but he thinks that voters need to “just … get over it.”

“I’d have to go for Trump,” he said. “You know, ’cause [Hillary’s] declared that she’s gonna follow in Obama’s footsteps. There’s been just too much funny business on both sides of the aisle. She’s made a lot of dough out of being a politician.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/08/04/clint-eastwood-explains-and-regrets-his-speech-to-an-empty-chair/?hpid=hp_hp-morning-mix_mm-story-i%3Ahomepage%2Fstory

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