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Romney was in Chicago as the featured attraction for a fundraiser for state Sen. Dan Rutherford of Chenoa, who is considering a bid for the Republican nomination for state treasurer next year. Rutherford, who ran unsuccessfully for secretary of state in 2006, was chairman of Romney’s Illinois presidential campaign.
Although Romney is a potential 2012 Republican presidential candidate after losing last year's race to Arizona Sen. John McCain, he applauded Obama’s decision to send more troops to Afghanistan, push back troop-removal deadlines for Iraq and delivering tough talk to General Motors and Chrysler.
“I think it’s incumbent on us to say nice job on the things he does well and to point out the places we disagree,” Romney said of Obama, a former Illinois senator.
When Romney defeated McCain in the Michigan primary, where Romney’s father served as governor and as an auto executive, he castigated the Arizona senator for sounding too pessimistic in noting that some manufacturing jobs, particularly in the auto industry, would never come back. But today Romney said he always backed a restructuring and modernization of the industry.
“I do not support a bailout of Detroit, but I do support restructuring the costs of the UAW (United Auto Workers), the retirees, the dealer costs and the debt costs. That’s going to have to happen,” Romney said. “I don’t want to see that industry go away. It doesn’t need to go away. But it’s not going to be successful if all we do is write them checks.”
Romney did criticize Obama over the economic stimulus bill that he said abdicated responsibility from the president “to a great degree” into the hands of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) and didn’t fire the “rifle shot” that was needed to create jobs. He also labeled Obama’s budget proposal “really quite alarming” and noted projections of a sizable deficit raised concerns about the value and stability of the U.S. dollar to foreign markets purchasing debt.
As for the political future, Romney said he would be active in key Republican races in next year's mid-term elections. Beyond that, he said, “the horizon is just too far off to be able to estimate what I’ll be doing.”
>> Also: Boston Globe - Romney stumps for Ill. senator
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