And that's where they didn't quite grasp the implications of what they were doing. If you look at the ad they made, you'll see that though it's obviously meant to deceive people into thinking American jobs are being sent to China as a result of the bailout, the words are literally true. "Obama took GM and Chrysler into bankruptcy," the ad says, "and sold Chrysler to Italians who are going to build Jeeps [pause for effect] in China." The Romney campaign thought they could play by the ordinary campaign rules, which say that if you say something true but intentionally misleading, you will usually be judged not guilty. Reporters will discuss the issue in the he said/she said format, with you saying you're telling the truth and your opponent saying you aren't, and you can declare victory.
But that's not what happened. Instead, Romney got a wave of negative coverage over the issue, with journalist after journalist saying forthrightly in their stories that the Romney attack is misleading or deceptive. This was particularly true in Michigan and Ohio, where the state of the auto industry is kind of important. Why did they do that? Two reasons, I think. The first and less important one is that after so many shamelessly false statements by Romney and his campaign, journalists' tolerance for this stuff may have run out. But the more important reason is the car companies stepped up to act as third-party validators of the truth. The Chrysler CEO wrote an emphatic letter to the company's employees assuring them no American jobs were moving to China, and a GM spokesperson criticized the ad as well.
