Nobody familiar with the electoral map should be surprised that the auto industry keeps coming up in the presidential campaign, as it did on Monday night during a debate that was supposed to focus on foreign policy. The entire election could come down to Ohio. And in Ohio, about one out of every eight jobs has ties to the carmakers. Take it from somebody who lives over the border in Michigan, the only state that has even more auto-related jobs than Ohio. In these parts, people care a lot about what Obama did—and what Romney might have done—when Chrysler and General Motors were in trouble.

But those of us in auto country shouldn’t be the only ones thinking about this episode. Perhaps more than any presidential campaign in recent memory, this election offers a set of stark choices. Obama and Romney have very different philosophies of government. And they have very different leadership styles. The auto industry story puts these contrasts into almost perfect relief.

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The American automakers were in trouble long before Chrysler and GM came to Washington in late 2008, seeking emergency assistance. Once models of American efficiency and emblems of American industrial power, the companies had struggled to keep up with foreign competitors. Unburdened by the same union contracts and obligation to provide health benefits, and guided by more imaginative leadership, these foreign competitors paid lower compensation and built better cars. By the 1980s, all three American carmakers, including Ford, were losing market share. It was only a matter of time before they were losing money.

Ford was the first to take matters into its own hands, largely because it ran into trouble first. In the 1990s, while the economy was strong, it began reinventing itself as a leaner, stronger firm. Chrysler and GM were slower to react. By 2008, they were building better, more appealing cars than they had been. But they hadn’t restructured their operations as fully as Ford had: They hadn’t reduced capacity to match their diminished market share. They hadn’t fully renegotiated agreements with labor and suppliers to keep up with the competition. They bled money and, once the economy collapsed, they simply couldn’t pay their bills. That's when they came to Washington, begging for help.