If Ohio has been President Barack Obama’s “firewall” – the state guarding against a disappointing Electoral College result on Nov. 6 – then the president’s re-election team might consider Obama’s well-publicized auto industry rescue as a type of firewall within a firewall.

Charles Dharapak / AP

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney stands on a table as he addresses an overflow crowd as he campaigns at PR Machine Works in Mansfield, Ohio, Monday, Sept. 10, 2012.

Obama has taken every effort to remind voters in Ohio of his authorization of a 2009 bailout of General Motors and Chrysler that is widely credited with preserving the companies as they stood on the brink of catastrophe. In the same breath, the president is sure to mention the op-ed – “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt” – penned by Romney for the New York Times, which called for a managed bankruptcy for the automakers supported partially by government guarantees.

There are real differences between how Obama sought the auto industry rescue and how Romney, judging by his own comments at the time, might have engineered support for GM and Chrysler. But if the Republican presidential nominee manages to win Midwestern states like Ohio and Wisconsin on Nov. 6, he could point to his recent messaging on the auto bailout as a reason why.

Romney has essentially tried to take credit for Obama’s actions, arguing that it was the president who ended up following Romney’s counsel all along, and lead GM and Chrysler toward a “managed bankruptcy.”

"He said that I said we should take Detroit bankrupt. And that’s right. My plan was to have the company go through bankruptcy like 7-Eleven did and Macy’s and Continental Airlines and come out stronger," Romney said at last week's second presidential debate in New York. "And I know he keeps saying, 'You want to take Detroit bankrupt.' Well, the president took Detroit bankrupt. You took General Motors bankrupt. You took Chrysler bankrupt. So when you say that I wanted to take the auto industry bankrupt, you actually did."

Romney’s semantic argument, though, obscures a gulf between him and Obama over how such a managed bankruptcy would have been managed and its implications for the industry.

First Read wrote in February – as Romney sought to win Michigan’s Republican primary – about the precise differences between Obama and Romney when it comes to the bailout.

The separation between Romney and Obama on the issue of the bailout stems from two issues. First, Romney argues that interests of the labor unions were unfairly favored over some of GM and Chrysler's private creditors. The government-supervised bankruptcy did this, he argues, by allowing the autoworkers’ retirees program an equity stake in the restructured GM in exchange for providing financial support for the bankruptcy.

Second, Romney appears to differ with the president over the extent to which government itself should have stepped forward with money to help stave off liquidation of GM and Chrysler and provide for the restructuring process. The administration's approach did this in the case of GM by essentially establishing a new, restructured company in which the government became a majority shareholder. (Romney argued Tuesday for the government to divest itself from the company.)

Romney's position in the past has been that the private sector could have stepped forward to finance and more effectively manage the bankruptcy process -- especially in a way that would have treated private stakeholders in the companies more fairly.

One of the key points, though, involves the type of support Romney would have offered to the companies. His original op-ed called for the government to back warrantees and guarantee private sector financing for the companies when they emerged from bankruptcy. But the bipartisan Congressional Oversight Panel overseeing the various bailouts questioned whether any private financing would have been available in the first place, given the credit crunch in early 2009.

“Gov. Romney, you keep on trying to, you know, airbrush history here,” Obama said on the topic of autos Monday evening at a third debate versus Romney. “You were very clear that you would not provide, government assistance to the U.S. auto companies, even if they went through bankruptcy. You said that they could get it in the private marketplace. That wasn’t true.”

Setting aside the candidates’ very different approaches, what is clear is that, for months now, Romney has tried to play offense on the issue of autos. And his success in states like Ohio – where one in eight jobs is said to have ties to the auto industry – may depend on Romney’s ability to convince Midwestern voters that GM and Chrysler would be doing just as well as they are now if he were president instead of Obama.

It appears voters are interested in learning more. As a New York Times spokesperson noted on Twitter, Romney’s original Nov. 18, 2008 op-ed, skyrocketed Tuesday to the top of the list of the most-read stories on the Times website.

NBC News takes a deep dive into the statements made by President Barack Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney in their second debate of the 2012 election cycle. 

We take a look at two topics, the auto bailout and energy production, and put their comments to the test.

Oil and gas production on federal lands
Romney claimed that both oil and natural gas production on federal land has decreased, with Obama maintaining that the Republican’s assertions are “ just not true.”

Here’s their contentious exchange:

ROMNEY: As a matter of fact, oil production is down 14 percent each year on federal land and gas production is down 9 percent. Why?  because the president cut in half the number of licenses and permits for drilling on federal land and in federal water.
OBAMA: Here's what happened. You had a whole bunch of oil companies who had leases on public lands that they weren't using. So what we said was, you can't just sit on this for 10, 20, 30 years, decide when you want to drill, when you want to produce, when it's most profitable for you. These are public lands. So if you want to drill on public lands, you use it or you lose it.  
ROMNEY: OK –  (inaudible) –
OBAMA: And so what we did was take away – 
ROMNEY: That's –
OBAMA: –  those leases, and we are now re-letting them so that we can actually make a profit. 
ROMNEY: And  – and –  and production on private –  on government lands is down. 
OBAMA: And the production is up. No it isn't. 
ROMNEY: Production on government land of oil is down 14 percent. 
OBAMA: Governor –  
ROMNEY: And production of gas is down 9 percent.  
OBAMA: What you're saying is just not true. It's just not true.
ROMNEY: I  –  it's absolutely true. 

What’s the truth? Oil production did fall by 14 percent on federal lands - onshore and offshore -  but that was only in one year, from 2010 to 2011.

And it was mainly the result of fallout from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.

But Obama is correct, that since he took office, oil production on federal lands is up.

RELATED: Sharp exchanges at second debate

In both 2009 and 2010, oil production increased ... so even with the 14 percent drop last year, overall production on federal land is still up 10.6 percent since 2008. 

But natural gas production on federal lands is down, and has been declining since 2003, according to the Energy Information Administration, mainly because of a decline in offshore natural gas drilling. 

Charles Dharapak / AP

President Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney participate in the second presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y.

Auto bailout
Obama called out Romney for not backing measures to save troubled car companies – the former Massachusetts governor opposed the federal bailout.

VOTE: Did the second presidential debate do anything to influence who you will support in the election?

"Now when Gov. Romney said we should let Detroit go bankrupt. I said we're going to bet on American workers and the American auto industry and it's come surging back."

The president was referring to a newspaper piece Romney wrote back in 2008, but the governor never actually said, “Let Detroit go bankrupt.”

The New York Times wrote that headline, not Gov. Romney. 

Romney did say the auto companies should go through what’s called a “managed bankruptcy,” where the companies would get help from private investors but not taxpayers’ money.

Slideshow: On the campaign trail

Reuters, Getty Images

In the final push in the 2012 presidential election, candidates Mitt Romney and Barack Obama make their last appeals to voters.

Launch slideshow

DENVER-- A defiant Mitt Romney refused to concede he is running as an underdog in the crucial battleground states that define the presidential contest, and accused President Obama of distorting his positions and trying to "fool" the American people.

Brian Snyder / Reuters

Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney speaks at a campaign rally in Denver, Colorado September 23, 2012.

Asked if he was now running as the underdog after a brutal two-week stretch of the campaign that included press accounts of infighting within his campaign, a leaked tape of him making controversial remarks at a fundraiser, and a slew of polls placing him slightly, but consistently behind President Obama in nearly every battleground state, Romney brushed off the question.

"I don’t pay a lot of attention to the day-to-day polls. They change a great deal," Romney said. "I know in the coming six weeks they’re very unlikely to remain where they are today. I’ll either go up or I’ll go down. It’s unlikely that we’ll just stay the same."

Pressed as to why those same polls showed him trailing in the various states - including Colorado, where he'll campaign Sunday night and Monday - Romney blamed President Obama's campaign for what he called "inaccurate" attack ads, which he complained mischaracterized his position on issues ranging from the auto bailout to abortion.

"They've been very aggressive in their attacks both on a personal basis and on a policy basis," Romney said. "I think as time goes on, people will realize that those attacks are not accurate and we'll be able to have a choice which is based upon each other’s accurate views for the country."

Later asked if he could win the upcoming October 3rd debate against President Obama, Romney returned to this vein, choosing not to answer the question directly, but to say that at least after the debates he could stop the president from trying to "fool people" into believing untrue things about him and his policy positions.

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"I think the president will not be able to continue to mischaracterize my pathway, and so I’ll continue to describe mine, he will describe his, and people will make a choice. That’s the great thing about democracy. I’m not going to try to fool people into thinking he believes things he doesn’t. He’s trying to fool people into thinking that I think things that I don’t. And that ends at the debates," Romney said.

But Romney, who regularly complains about ads by the president's campaign that he says are false and should be taken down, has also had multiple ads by his own campaign rated false by independent fact checkers, including recent attacks on welfare reform, which remain on the air.

The former Massachusetts governor also addressed his languid public campaign schedule of late, which has focused largely on fundraising and debate prep, by again blaming the president for disregarding federal campaign matching funds in 2008 and again this presidential cycle, forcing him to do the same.

"He’s doing it again this time, so to be competitive it means a lot more fundraising than I think I would like," Romney said. "I’d far rather be spending my time out in the key swing states campaigning, door-to-door if necessary, but in rallies and various meetings, but fundraising is a part of politics when you’re opponent decides not to live by the federal spending limits."

Finally, as Romney landed in Denver, where in just 10 days he will face off with President Obama in the first of three presidential debates, Romney attempted to shift expectations of an outright victory toward something more modest.

"I can’t tell you winning and losing. I mean, he’s president of the United States, he’s a very effective speaker. I hope I’ll be able to describe my positions in a way that is accurate and the people will make a choice as to which path they want to choose," Romney said.

"I don't expect this to be a contest of who can say the cutest phrase, I think it's a contest of very different directions for the country," he added later.