Romney said he had right policy on auto companies

WASHINGTON – Newly minted Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney says he was right in arguing the troubled auto industry should use bankruptcy laws instead of a government bailout to get a new start.

Romney defends his long-held position that the companies should have proceeded directly to bankruptcy rather than seeking — and getting — taxpayer bailout assistance. He tells CBS's "The Early Show" that while President Barack Obama takes credit for saving the industry, he actually "recognized that I was right" and the companies eventually did go into bankruptcy and reorganized. The former Massachusetts governor said, "I'm very happy that we called it like it was."

Romney said, in his words, "The right process for an enterprise in trouble is not to be given money by the taxpayers in a bailout."