Obama disputes Romney's claim of credit for auto bailout President Barack Obama says Mitt Romney is having an "Etch-A-Sketch moment" when he claims credit for the revival of the U.S. auto industry. Obama says people remember that Romney's stance was that Detroit should have been allowed to go bankrupt. Of Romney's insistence this week that he deserves credit for the auto industry's success, Obama says "I don't think anybody takes that seriously." In an interview with ABC News, Obama says Romney's plan for letting car companies go bankrupt would have cost the economy about one million jobs in the Midwest. GM and Chrysler went into bankruptcy on the strength of a massive bailout set up by the Obama administration. Romney wrote in a 2008 editorial that if the bailout were enacted, "you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye."