In last night's Republican debate, Romney said he cared more than anyone on the stage about Michigan and the auto industry. You wouldn't know it given his opposition to the successful effort President Obama pursued to get the auto industry back on its feet.

He turned his back on an industry and a city in crisis. His belief that Detroit should go bankrupt shows he didn't care at all.

If you’re a middle-class American worried about losing your job, your home, or your health care, don’t look to Romney for leadership—he’s fishing for right-wing votes by promising to turn his back on you.

Mitt Romney is coming out with a spending plan—and if it's anything like his tax plan, it'll be something only a billionaire could love.

Romney's tax plan protects $40 billion in subsidies for big oil, $700 billion in tax breaks for the wealthy, and nearly $1 trillion to corporate America. But how much can middle-class families expect to gain under Romney's plan? A mere $54.

The past two weeks have been brutal for Mitt Romney on the campaign trail. Self-inflicted wounds like waffling on basic issues and callously standing with Wall Street and the big banks over the middle class have brought to the fore issues about Mitt Romney as a candidate that were fatal when he ran for President the first time: that he is wholly out of touch with the concerns of ordinary Americans and that he is a finger-in-the-wind politician who lacks any core convictions.

The American people are learning that from his politically motivated calculations to his out-of-touch positions, Mitt Romney would be a disaster for middle-class families, and he cannot be trusted to lead.

Here are three examples from the past two weeks alone:

• Mitt Romney’s statement that we should allow struggling homeowners to “hit rock bottom”—most of whom are responsible and find themselves in their current straits through no fault of their own—was callous and appalling. It treats the homes of honest, hard-working Americans like nothing more than Monopoly pieces that bankers can use to get rich. But perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised by Romney’s proposal to let struggling homeowners fend for themselves—this is, after all, the same Mitt Romney who made a fortune firing workers and sending their jobs overseas.
• Following President Obama’s announcement that the end of the Iraq War would be complete before year's end, Romney released a statement attacking the President in which he called the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq a “political calculation” and suggested that American troops ought to remain there indefinitely. This is an astonishing charge from Romney, who has taken multiple positions on virtually every major foreign policy issue that the U.S. has confronted over the past several years and changes his tune day in and day out for sheer political gain.
• Romney has also been facing recent criticism over the last couple of weeks for his economic plan—and rightly so: The plan doubles down on the failed policies of the past with more handouts for millionaires, billionaires and large corporations while middle-class families are left to fend for themselves. In addition to calling middle class tax relief "little Band-Aids," he appears to be embracing a flat tax—yet another flip-flop—which would shift more and more of the tax burden on the middle class.

As Romney clings to his status as frontrunner of the GOP presidential field, even Republicans seem to be nervous about who Romney really is and what he actually believes. He continues to garner just a quarter of the Republican primary vote—hardly a ringing endorsement from his own party. And while a right-wing primary electorate may forgive Romney the occasional flip-flop if he is flopping in their direction—and while they can likely live with a person who believes in the tried and failed trickle-down economics that Romney promises to visit upon Americans—over the past two weeks, Romney has filled in a portrait of himself as an out-of-touch, calculating, and value-less politician who will not resonate broadly with the American people.

Read the full memo here.

After Mitt Romney said that we should let the foreclosure crisis “run its course and hit the bottom,” DNC communications director Brad Woodhouse issued the following statement:

"Mitt Romney’s comment to the Las Vegas Review-Journal that we shouldn’t try and stop the foreclosure crisis but should let it ‘run its course and hit the bottom’ is appalling and wrong. Romney demonstrated yet again just how out of touch he is with Nevadans—a statement so extreme that even right-wing Republican Nevada U.S. Senator Dean Heller was forced to condemn it.

“While Romney’s comments are appalling, it’s not unexpected from someone who made a fortune firing workers and sending jobs overseas. It should come as no surprise that he wants to let Wall Street write its own rules and thinks that corporations are people. Romney's not advocating for any policies that would get Americans back to work; he supports doubling down on the failed policies of the past that caused the economy downturn.”

After Mitt Romney said that we should let the foreclosure crisis “run its course and hit the bottom,” DNC communications director Brad Woodhouse issued the following statement:

"Mitt Romney’s comment to the Las Vegas Review-Journal that we shouldn’t try and stop the foreclosure crisis but should let it ‘run its course and hit the bottom’ is appalling and wrong. Romney demonstrated yet again just how out of touch he is with Nevadans—a statement so extreme that even right-wing Republican Nevada U.S. Senator Dean Heller was forced to condemn it.

“While Romney’s comments are appalling, it’s not unexpected from someone who made a fortune firing workers and sending jobs overseas. It should come as no surprise that he wants to let Wall Street write its own rules and thinks that corporations are people. Romney's not advocating for any policies that would get Americans back to work; he supports doubling down on the failed policies of the past that caused the economy downturn.”

At a recent Republican debate, Mitt Romney declared that President Obama's proposal to cut payroll taxes for the middle class—tax relief that amounts to $1,500 of extra cash for the typical American family—is nothing more than "temporary little Band-Aids."

Ouch.

Most Americans know that $1,500 makes a difference. But if you, like Romney, can forgo the money for four months of groceries, seven months of gasoline, or a full year's electricity bill, we're pleased to sell you a box of Mitt Romney–brand Temporary Little Band-Aids, helpfully priced by Romney himself at $1,500.

So if you're feeling a little out of touch, get your Temporary Little Band-Aids here.

Mitt Romney likes to say that he is not running for president to help the rich. But nothing in his record—or his rhetoric—suggests that's the case, and last night, he took it a step further. At the Bloomberg/Washington Post debate, Romney argued that extending the payroll tax cut—which would put $1,500 in the pockets of working Americans—is nothing more than "little Band-Aids."

Even Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics and an economic adviser to former Republican presidential nominee John McCain, says that not extending this middle-class tax cut could cause another recession.

So Mitt Romney would raise taxes on the middle class and put our economy at risk in the process. Does he really think we believe he's not running for president to help the rich? Or maybe it's just that this former governor whose state finished 47th in job creation doesn't understand the economic potential and imperative of middle-class tax cuts.

Call Romney out. Watch—and share—our new web video.