Romney cedes 2012?

I guess you NYT people saw this, but Mitt Romney, who idiot pundits liked to say could have carried Michigan because he graduated high school there in 1965, has an article out today in which he says that the automakers should be allowed to fail.

As a politician who currently holds no office and one assumes is still aspiring towards one, why on earth would you say something like that? What if it happens? Thousands of jobs will be lost, even if the greater long-term interest is actually served. You alienate blue-collar workers, who are becoming more important to the Republican party in the new economy (young white-collar workers did mean that Colorado, Virginia, and to a lesser extent North Carolina were actual shifts in the map this year, just as older, less-educated Missouri also shifted to the right). You certainly aren't gaining any votes by making this proclamation. I could go on, but I guess you guys get the point. Right or wrong, I don't see how coming out with this helps you at all. I suppose there's a chance the majority of Americans favor letting them fail (only with some sort of line about how they've been digging their own grave, which I suppose is fair) but they won't be too happy about it if they get what they want and unemployment spikes. It just seems like a no-win statement.