Gertrude Stein’s famous quotation — “There is no there, there” — is as good a way an any to describe Mitt Romney, who can’t seem to make a public statement without lying and/or contradicting himself. A Huffington Post story explains why one of Mitt’s most bold-faced lies may come back to haunt him in the Michigan primary:

In his recent op-ed, Romney — who also opposed the bailout in an op-ed in The New York Times in 2008 — argued that automakers should have been left to go bankrupt on their own, letting the courts force the companies to restructure. As the son of both a previous Michigan governor and former head of the American Motors Corporation, Romney says he speaks from experience. He was born in Detroit, after all.

The bailout gave the unions too much power in the new companies, Romney argued, and gives the government a large stake in General Motors that it should divest itself of immediately.

Yet in the fall of 2008 and early 2009, there weren’t any banks willing to help GM or Chrysler through bankruptcy. If a company goes into bankruptcy without a bank willing to fund operations for a while, companies typically go out of business and are sold piece by piece.

Without someone stepping in, it seemed GM and Chrysler would sink. And Ford, which didn’t take bailout money, urged the government to come forward. If the two other automotive giants in town went under, they could drag Ford under, too, CEO Alan Mulally told Congress.

Mitt still has almost two weeks and millions of dollars to turn things around in his old home state, but it won’t be easy. Even the most gullible Republican voters can see right through him on this one.