Another day, another presidential candidate of the Republican Party remembers the 2009 U.S. automotive industry bailout and declares his disdain by saying that both the country and the carmakers would be better off without it. So what else is new?

Well, Rick Santorum managed to attack not only President Barack Obama, but also his predecessor in the White House, George W. Bush and “fellow” Republican candidate Mitt Romney – all during the same speech he made at the Detroit Economic Club today.

Predictably, Santorum, like Romney, said that both General Motors and Chrysler would be “alive and equally as well, or better off, than they are now,” adding “the markets would have reacted to restructure it to be more competitive.”

The former Pennsylvania senator, though, also attacked the former occupant of the White House, explaining that it was Bush who gave the green light for the bailout. “I actually blame President Bush more than I do President Obama. President Obama was just following suit”.

Santorum didn’t stop there as he also accused his opponent in the Michigan primaries; citing the federal Troubled Asset Relief Program for financial institutions, which Romney supported, he claimed that the latter’s behavior is inconsistent.

“Governor Romney supported the bailout of Wall Street and decided not to support the bailout of Detroit”, he said. “My feeling was the government should not be involved in bailouts, period. That’s a much more consistent position.”

According to Business Week, two surveys that were released on February 13 gave Santorum a lead in the state of Michigan – the first by 15 percentage points and the second by six.

A Detroit News-WDIV telephone poll that was released today, February 17, still puts Santorum ahead of Romney, with 34.0 vs 30.4 percent. The 4.4 percentage point margin of error, though, in the poll makes the outcome quite uncertain.

Ironically, while the Republicans are fighting it out over who opposed the U.S. auto industry bailout the most, GM announced today that in 2011 it posted the largest annual profit in its 103-year-old history, US$9.19 billion, and a net income of US$7.6 billion, up from US$4.7 billion in 2010…

Story References: Businessweek