Auto bailout the issues as Romney campaign hits Michigan

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney made a pair of campaign stops in metro Detroit on his first trip to the state as a declared candidate.

The former Massachusetts governor was greeted with protests at a Livonia diner in the morning. Romney then headed to the business incubator Bizdom U in Detroit, where he offered advice to a handful of entrepreneurs.

Romney then fielded reporters’ questions – most of which centered around his opposition to the federal government’s 2009 bailout of GM and Chrysler.

"I believe that bailouts are not the answer, but instead that the process of going through the normal bankruptcy reorganization where enterprises can shed excessive cost, reestablish their customer base and their economic foundation and emerge stronger is the right process and would have been the right process here as well."

Romney is now considered the front-runner in the race for the GOP nomination. Romney grew up in Michigan and announced his 2008 presidential candidacy in Dearborn.