Romney Comes Home

There's never been a moment quite like it. The scion of an American industrial baron returns to his home state to explain how he'd save the industry his father once led. George Romney was, of course, the head of American Motors. He coined the term "gas guzzler" long before the age of Priuses and Volts. Now when Detroit is looking to smaller, fuel efficient cars to save itself, the prodigal son who chose not to go into the auto industry--he told me last year that he found his one summer working at Chrysler to be less than stimulating--has come home. After having eschewed old-line industry for the call of cconsulting and private equity,Willard "Mitt" Romney laid out today his goals for heping the auto industry come back. There's a lot of what you'd expect, talk of tax cuts and denunciation of fuel-efficiency standards that leap with no predictible pattern. But some of it, especially the attention he vows to give the problem, seems interesting at least. I don't know if Michigan will let Romney continue his campaign for president but it won't be for lack of trying. Part of the question will come down to whether you think Bain could be doing a better job with Chrysler than Cerberus. Part of it depends on whether you think any president can really do that much to save the American auto industry.