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From this Thursday evening's Democratic National Convention, this is what you call a barn-burner folks. Former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm brought down the house with her passionate speech thanking President Obama for saving the auto industry when no one else was willing to come in and rescue them, including Bain Capital, and took it to Mitt Romney for famously saying to "let Detroit go bankrupt."

Full text of former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm's speech at Democratic National Convention:

Good evening, I'm Jennifer Granholm, from the great state of Michigan, where the trees are just the right height! Let me tell you a story about the dark days in my home state. Towards the end of my time as governor, Ford closed one of its biggest factories, a factory in Wixom, Michigan. The Wixom plant had employed thousands of middle-class men and women in neighborhoods near—yet worlds away from—the place Mitt Romney was raised.

When Ford's decision hit, I went down to the local union hall. It was almost empty; a few workers milled about in shock and grief. I talked to a 45-year-old guy who told me, "This is the only place I've ever worked.

I've been loyal. I've done everything they've ever asked. And just like that, it's gone." He looked around the hall and said, "So, governor, is it over for us? Is the American auto industry dead?" Honestly, at that moment, I just didn't know. And that was just the beginning. When the financial crisis hit, things got a lot worse – and fast.

The entire auto industry, and the lives of over one million hard-working Americans, teetered on the edge of collapse; and with it, the whole manufacturing sector. We looked everywhere for help. Almost nobody had the guts to help us – not the banks, not the private investors and not Bain capital. Then, in 2009, the cavalry arrived: our new president, Barack Obama!

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Former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland delivered a barn burner of a speech at the 2012 Democratic National Convention this Tuesday night and landed some body blows to Mitt Romney for everything from his offshore tax havens to his vulture capitalism at Bain to wanting to allow Detroit to go bankrupt, which would have devastated Ohio's economy.

The HuffPo has the entire speech, but here's the portion from the clip above:

Now, Mitt Romney, he lives by a different code. To him, American workers are just numbers on a spreadsheet.

To him, all profits are created equal, whether made on our shores or off. That's why companies Romney invested in were dubbed "outsourcing pioneers." Our nation was built by pioneers—pioneers who accepted untold risks in pursuit of freedom, not by pioneers seeking offshore profits at the expense of American workers here at home.

Mitt Romney proudly wrote an op-ed entitled, "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt." If he had had his way, devastation would have cascaded from Michigan to Ohio and across the nation. Mitt Romney never saw the point of building something when he could profit from tearing it down. If Mitt was Santa Claus, he'd fire the reindeer and outsource the elves.

Mitt Romney has so little economic patriotism that even his money needs a passport. It summers on the beaches of the Cayman Islands and winters on the slopes of the Swiss Alps. In Matthew, chapter 6, verse 21, the scriptures teach us that where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. My friends, any man who aspires to be our president should keep both his treasure and his heart in the United States of America. And it's well past time for Mitt Romney to come clean with the American people.

On what he's saying about the president's policy for welfare to work, he's lying. Simple as that. On his tax returns, he's hiding. You have to wonder, just what is so embarrassing that he's gone to such great lengths to bury the truth? Whatever he's doing to avoid taxes, can it possibly be worse than the Romney-Ryan tax plan that would have sliced Mitt's total tax rate to less than one percent?

My friends, there is a true choice in this election. Barack Obama is betting on the American worker. Mitt Romney is betting on a Bermuda shell corporation. Barack Obama saved the American auto industry. Mitt Romney saved on his taxes. Barack Obama is an economic patriot. Mitt Romney is an outsourcing pioneer. My friends, the stakes are too high, the differences too stark to sit this one out. Let us stand as one on November 6th and move this country forward by re-electing President Barack Obama.

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From this Tuesday evening's coverage on Current TV of the Republican National Convention, The War Room host and former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm reacts to Ohio Gov. John Kasich taking credit for his state's improving economy.

As Granholm and others pointed out, if Kasich were willing to be honest, he'd be thanking President Obama for saving the auto industry and his state's economy, rather than praising and supporting the guy for president, who famously said to let Detroit go bankrupt. If it were up to Willard, Kasich wouldn't have anything to be bragging about right now.

Par for the course for a convention whose entire theme is based on a lie and distortion and taking President Obama's "you didn't build that" remarks out of context.

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The Obama administration went after China again this week, this time with a challenge on their vehicle import tariffs, and as this article from the Detroit Free Press explains, this is just one in a series of disputes we've seen from the administration in recent months: Obama challenges China on vehicle import tariffs.

That hasn't stopped the Romney campaign from constantly attacking the Obama administration on everything from their handling of the Chinese dissident case, to claiming that President Obama has been "treated as China's doormat."

As Rachel noted, the Romney campaign has been doing a lot of "barking" on the Obama administration's policy towards China, but what we've actually gotten from Romney is a very mixed message with lots of tough talk and "squeamish reservations" on how he'd actually deal with China. Par for the course with Mitt Romney, we've got him talking out of both sides of his mouth on yet another issue.

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In yet another example of why George Stephanopoulos is a terrible host on ABC's This Week, here he is saving Tim Pawlenty just as Katrina vanden Heuvel was trying to pin him down on the fact that President Obama ought to get some credit for saving the auto industry in Mitt Romney's home state. Pawlenty lies and says that Romney, who said to let Detroit go bankrupt, would have saved the industry as well. Cue George Stephanopoulos making sure vanden Heuvel can't finish her point by bringing in George Will.

Vanden Heuvel did a good job of pointing out the record amount of obstruction we've seen from Republicans in regard to job creation as well during that little time she was allowed to speak. I guess some follow up from Stephanopoulos pointing out that Romney was not at all interested in saving the American auto industry is just too much to ask.

Transcript below the fold.

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Vice President Joe Biden was out on the campaign trail this week in Ohio, and on the attack over Mitt Romney's record as a so-called "job creator" and a businessman who "knows how to create jobs" and get our economy moving again. Fox's Neil Cavuto brought on his former fellow Fox contributor turned Ohio Governor John Kasich to respond.

Kasich of course tried to downplay the credit the Obama administration was attempting to take for Ohio's economy improving and their unemployment rate falling below the national average, and instead credited himself for making Ohio a more business friendly state and making the same points we've been hearing from Republicans ad nauseum on what Paul Krugman has rightfully called "the confidence fairy." Forget the fact that what drives businesses to make investments and grow their companies are consumers and whether the general public has enough disposable income to afford their products. Kasich wants you to believe, like all Republicans, that fear of over-regulation, rather than a lack of customers is what's stifling our economy.

The "confidence" businesses actually need is going to be driven up by a strong middle class and consumers who can afford their products; which as we've seen over the last few decades is what Republicans are determined to destroy.

The Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern pointed out earlier this year exactly why Kasich does not deserve credit for turning Ohio's economy around: REMARKS: Chairman Redfern Says Kasich Should Credit Obama, Brown, Dems for Ohio’s Improving Economy in State of the State Address:

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President Barack Obama says he is so confident of the U.S. auto industry's return to greatness that he is buying an American electric car at the end of his second term.

In a fiery speech to the United Auto Workers (UAW) members on Tuesday, the president said that his decision to bailout General Motors and Chrysler had been a success.

"If we had turned our backs on you; if America had thrown in the towel; GM and Chrysler wouldn’t exist today," Obama told the crowd. "And you know why I knew this rescue would succeed? It wasn’t because of anything the government did. It wasn’t just because of anything management did. It was because I believed in you. I placed my bet on American workers."

"Three years later, the American auto industry is back," he continued. "GM is back on top as the number one automaker in the world, with the highest profits in its 100-year history. ... And you’re not just building cars again. You’re building better cars."

"I know our bet was a good one because I’ve seen the payoff first hand," Obama insisted. "I’ve seen at GM’s Lordstown plant in Ohio, where workers got their jobs back to build the Chevy Cobalt, and at GM’s Hamtramck plant in Detroit, where I got to get inside a brand-new Chevy Volt fresh off the line."

At that point, the president detoured from his prepared remarks to explain just how much he liked Chevy's new electric car.

"Secret Service wouldn't let me drive it," he joked. "But I liked sitting in it. It was nice. I bet it drives real good."

"And five years from now when I'm not president anymore, I'll buy one and drive it myself!" Obama exclaimed, prompting the enthusiastic audience to chant, "Four more years! Four more years!"

The president's speech to auto workers comes on the day that Michigan voters are casting their ballots in the Republican presidential primary.

In contrast to Obama's embrace of the $80 billion auto bailout, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney recently claimed that the current White House resident "gave" the car companies to the UAW.

"My view is this: We have to have industries that get in trouble go through bankruptcies," Romney explained at a CNN debate last week.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has also recently taken a shot the auto industry's effort at building more energy efficient models.

At a campaign event in Suwanee, Georgia last week, Gingrich told supporters that he would bring back cheaper gas because “you can’t put a gun rack on a Volt.”

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Rachel Maddow spoke to author, filmmaker and resident Michigander Michael Moore about the upcoming Republican primary election in Michigan this Tuesday and the fact that both of their leading candidates, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum, wanted to allow the auto industry to go bankrupt.

As Moore told Maddow "I have come to the conclusion that they are in a race with each other to see who can get the least number of votes from the Michigan citizenry."

Moore also weighed in on Santorum's recent comments attacking President Obama for encouraging Americans to pursue higher education and "Operation Hilarity" where Democrats are encouraging their voters to cross over and vote for Rick Santorum in the Michigan primary.

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During the GOP Weekly Response, Senator Lamar Alexander attacked and distorted the National Labor Relations Board's decision to stop Boeing from punishing their workers and moving one of their plants to South Carolina in retribution for a pair of strikes over the last six years.

Here's more from Think Progress on that -- Gov. Haley Defends Boeing’s Union-Busting: ‘It’s Called Capitalism’:

The National Labor Relations Board last week filed a complaint against the airplane manufacturer Boeing, noting that, according to public pronouncements by the company’s officials, the construction of a new plant in South Carolina was intended as retribution against workers in Washington who have engaged in a pair of strikes over the last six years. One senior Boeing official, for instance, said during an interview, “The overriding factor [in moving to South Carolina] was not the business climate. And it was not the wages we’re paying today. It was that we cannot afford to have a work stoppage, you know, every three years.”

Under national labor law, retaliating against workers for striking is illegal union-busting, but several Republican lawmakers have attacked the NLRB and the Obama administration for initiating the complaint. “This is nothing more than a political favor for the unions who are supporting President Obama’s re-election campaign,” said Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC). “The Obama administration is now dictating where companies are allowed to create new jobs,” wrote former Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN).

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) took to the Wall Street Journal’s op-ed page today to decry the NLRB’s decision, saying that it circumvents capitalism and falsely claiming that the NLRB “wants Boeing to produce the planes only in Washington state“.

More there so go read the rest.

Alexander went on to tout how wonderful it was that foreign auto manufacturers were coming in and employing people in his state and he blamed the unionized workers rather than management decisions for American auto companies not being able to compete with them.

This weekly response by the GOP seems completely tone deaf to me unless they think that somehow praising foreign companies and calling them "American" auto companies and touting a race to the bottom on wages in this economic environment is going to be a winning message for them in 2012.

Transcript via the LA Times below the fold.

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Ed Schultz talks to The President of the United Steelworkers of America, Leo Gerard about the cash for clunkers program, and the need to restore a manufacturing base and invest in infrastructure in the United States. I'm glad to see Ed Schultz having people like Gerard on his show. He's one of the better, plain spoken, honest brokers who stands up for working people I've seen out there representing the union movement and the working class in the United States, which is sorely disregarded or berated by the majority of the chattering class in our media.

Schultz: Just a couple of months ago, labor organized this big bus tour covering some thirty states and the mission of that tour was to basically save the car industry, stimulate sales. The steel workers pushed the program cash for clunkers. This turned out to be the most successful incentive program the government's ever had. For more on that let me bring in Leo Gerard, International President of the United Steel workers. Leo, how good of a sign is this that we're seeing consumers react, I think that's the big thing, consumers are reacting. How encouraged are you by this?

Gerard: Look, I think it's a very positive sign and I'm really excited because as you say, we did thirty four cities in eleven states talking about a need to stimulate demand for the automobile industry, and I think that tour helped to do that. And listening to you and Verge right now, I've got to tell you that you're all on the right track. We need to do more of this. We need to stimulate more demand. We need to stimulate more manufacturing and we ought not to be ashamed of what we're doing.

The President of France said he's going to put eight billion, eight billion with a "b" into their cash for clunkers program, on the condition that all that money would have to be spent on cars produced in France. For us in the steel workers union, we don't assemble cars, but it's our tires, our steel, our aluminum, our glass, our plastic that goes into those cars, so once those cars start moving off the show room, our steel mills will start to work.

Our tire plants will start to work and people will start going back to work. And this shows that President Obama, if he could get more support from Republicans, his program is leading us in the right direction, and if we had more Republicans standing up for America rather than playing petty politics and doing stupid stuff with birthers and everything, we could stimulate this economy. We need an infrastructure bank, just like that.

Schultz: No question about it. Mr. Gerard, do you really think there will be a manufacturing ripple effect, that we might see some jobs created in manufacturing because we're starting to see some cars move off the lot in this country?

Gerard: Absolutely Ed. The fact of the matter is that those cars have to have, and I agree with Verge about buying domestically, those cars will have domestic steel in them, those cars will have domestic parts in them, but let me go one step further. I think we need to do the same thing with the investment banks for infrastructure. If we can do the same thing on domestic infrastructure and start to build our water treatment plants, start to rebuild all of our kind of sewers and pipelines.

Today driving into work I heard about the city of Pittsburg was shut down because the sewer lines busted. So we need that kind of stuff and to go along with the cash for clunkers, we ought to cash for clunkers for infrastructure and that will get people back to work. And I can tell you that our steel mills are going to start, our paper mills are going to start, our rubber plants are going to start and that's going to put people back to work. They'll get some money. They'll go buy something, and I think we ought to push the cash for clunkers and we ought to put more money in. In fact, I've got a good idea, let's take the thirty three billion dollars they gave in bonuses for the clowns that created the economic mess, and let's put that thirty three billion into a cash for clunkers program.

Schultz: Well, I think what we need to point out Leo is the fact that we have thrown billions of dollars at Wall Street. This is a morsal of what we saw to go Wall Street. To the American workers and the consumers that responded this ought to be a wake up call to every person who really supported Barack Obama through it all that he's got the right mix.