Romney bashes union bosses as he attempts to win Michigan primary

[maddezmom]

Feb. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, seeking to avoid an embarrassing defeat in Michigan’s Feb. 28 primary, is racing to woo party voters by taking on two of his home state’s icons: unions and cars.

Romney, the son of an auto company executive-turned- Michigan governor, has bashed labor bosses at almost every campaign stop in the state this week, vowing to pass laws making it harder for workers to organize -- particularly the powerful United Auto Workers union.


“I’ve taken on union bosses before, and I’m happy to take them on again,” he told a crowd at an office furniture warehouse on Feb. 15 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. “I sure won’t give into the UAW.”

Romney also has been citing unions as a major reason for his opposition to the federal bailouts of General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC -- a position he spelled out in a widely publicized Feb. 14 column in the Detroit News.

more; http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/romney-bashes-union-bosses-as-he-attempts-to-win-michigan-primary/2012/02/17/gIQAHifrJR_story.html

[rocktivity]

1. "They've got the guns, but we've got the numbers." -- Jim Morrision

"And we've got guns, too."

-- rocktivity

[JohnnyRingo]

2. When in doubt, it's always safe to attack hourly workers.

That's been an unfortunate Republican strategy for years.

Barstool Republicans are always ready to take out the next guy up on the economic ladder. That and cutting off the poor people below him, makes it feel like he got a big fat raise.

How can Joe the (non union) Plumber know he's middle class unless he can spit down upon half the workers?

[csziggy]

3. Somebody needs to tell Rmoney "Unions are people, too!"

[K8-EEE]

4. Ooh good one HEY LIBERAL MEDIA (as IF)

Will someone please ask him if he thinks unions are as "people like" as corporations?

[Denninmi]

5. Yeah, that should win over the "Reagan Democrats"

Even though they often vote R because of "social issues", most of the older voters in this region worked for the Big 3 (Big 4 in the old days before Chrysler at Jeep/AMC) and are UAW members.

He seems to have forgotten that the very term "Reagan Democrats" was coined after the 1980 election due to a study of voting patterns in the Detroit suburban Macomb County, which is heavily blue collar and heavily UAW:

"The work of Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg is a classic study of Reagan Democrats. Greenberg analyzed white ethnic voters (largely unionized auto workers) in Macomb County, Michigan, just north of Detroit. The county voted 63 percent for John F. Kennedy in 1960, but 66 percent for Reagan in 1980." -- Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reagan_Democrat

Yet another stupid thing out of his mouth that will alienate him with many voters in SE Michigan, although I can see it will play well in West Michigan among the far right crowd there.