For all of the tremendous vitriol that progressives heaped upon Mitt Romney for even daring to suggest that Detroit’s auto industry should cut its losses and undergo a managed bankruptcy that would eventually help to get things back on track, and for all of President Obama and his campaign’s high-handed scolding over what a stupid idea that would have been and their insistence that Detroit has come “roaring back,” some of the same intransigent unions to which the president was pandering with all of that bailout money — as well as wildly unsustainable pension funds and terrible local governance — have ultimately helped to take to take the city down to fiscal rock-bottom territory anyway.

It was a long and completely predictable downward spiral, and it’s going to mean a lot of dire material hardship for a lot of people — but as Michigan Gov. Snyder said last night, a bankruptcy filing was the last option left available, and it’s really exactly what the city needs to keep it going in the long run. Via NRO:

Meanwhile, over at the White House, President Obama is supposedly monitoring the nation’s largest municipal bankruptcy evah, but is shying away from committing any federal help. Via Politico:

“The president and members of the president’s senior team continue to closely monitor the situation in Detroit,” spokeswoman Amy Brundage said Thursday. “While leaders on the ground in Michigan and the city’s creditors understand that they must find a solution to Detroit’s serious financial challenge, we remain committed to continuing our strong partnership with Detroit as it works to recover and revitalize and maintain its status as one of America’s great cities.”

The tepid reaction Thursday comes after saving the Detroit auto industry was a central feature of Obama’s re-election campaign…

“But we refused to throw in the towel and do nothing,” Obama said in the Oct. 13 address. “We refused to let Detroit go bankrupt.”

Oh, and while we’re on the subject, here’s another absolute gem from the president appearing in Michigan back in December: At the end of last year, the state went through the ringer in the effort to become the country’s 24th Right-to-Work state, and President Obama of course felt compelled to weigh in about how Republicans — Republicans — were thereby fostering a “race to the bottom”:

These so-called right-to-work laws, they don’t have to do with economics; they have everything to do with politics. What they are really talking about is giving you the right to work for less money. … We don’t want a race to the bottom. We want a race to the top. America’s not gonna’ compete based on low-skill, low-wage, no workers’ rights — that’s not our competitive advantage.

And, added bonus, here’s what Harry Reid said at the time, too:

This is a blatant attempt by Michigan Republicans to assault the collective bargaining process and undermine the standard of living it has helped foster. … Elected officials, labor leaders and business leaders can and should work towards the common goals of job creation, improving our economy and strengthening middle-class families. But this partisan power grab is a setback to prospects for compromise.

Detroit has been dominated by progressive policies and big unions for decades now — and yet it’s conservative policies like Right-to-Work that undermine the standard of living? Uhm… Ed posted one of Steven Crowder’s very pertinent throwbacks in the Green Room last night, and in his latest vid on the current goings-on in the Motor City, Steven reminds us that Detroit is going to have a rough time finding a Republican scapegoat for this one: