At this rate, it’s just a matter of time before President Obama gets blamed for the Great Depression of the 1930’s!
Bush was still President, but in 2008, President Obama went to an auto plant in Wisconsin and told the then struggling company that reconstruction and some government help could keep the plant open and save jobs in the process. The auto plant eventually closed in December of 2008. No, Obama did not have the title of “President” at that time… this happened in 2008!
But Paul Ryan is apparently not familiar with something called records. On multiple occasions as he campaigns with Mitt Romney, Ryan blamed Obama for not keeping the plant open.
“I remember President Obama visiting it when he was first running, saying he’ll keep that plant open,” Ryan said in Ohio Thursday, describing the shuttered GM factory in Janesville, Wis. “One more broken promise.”
Ryan blamed rising gas prices under Obama for the closing. He echoed the complaint in an interview with a local ABC affiliate, suggesting it showed that Obama’s auto rescue was a sham.
“It didn’t help Janesville,” he said. “They shut our plant down. It didn’t help Kenosha. I represent there; they shut down the Chrysler plant.”
The Detroit News noted that Obama said during a visit in early 2008 that government help and some restructuring could keep the plant open. But after the financial crisis and a collapse in demand for the SUVs the factory produced, it shut down in December 2008 in the waning days of Bush’s second term. It’s still owned by GM, but has been closed ever since.
The right has been doing this since Obama was elected.