Source: Realclearpolitics.com

"Let Detroit Go Bankrupt."

Those four words have played an outsize role in the Michigan primary race between Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum. It's the headline that topped an op-ed Romney wrote for the New York Times on Nov. 18, 2008, in which he asserted that the troubled American auto companies should go through a "managed bankruptcy" rather than receive a government bailout.

That position has helped imperil Romney's chances of winning his native state, where Santorum, his current chief rival, leads in the polls.

There's just one small thing to consider: Mitt Romney didn't write the headline.

The position, of course, is his, as were the words in the op-ed itself. But the headline is what grabbed the attention of the political world and news media, and it has remained fodder for the cable news outlets throughout the GOP primary season.

In fact, it caused such a stir that Romney's team tried to distance itself from the headline in small ways. When RealClearPolitics reported a year ago on his then-PAC's strategy of sticking to op-eds rather than offering the candidate for interviews, we noted that the only op-ed left off the PAC's website was the one written for the Times. A Romney source later explained, "We didn't write the headline."

After Democrats harangued Romney for his anti-bailout stance last week, sources at the New York Times confirmed for RCP that an editor at the Gray Lady chose "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt." What's more, Romney and his team never got a chance to see or approve of it before publication.

Of course, the former Massachusetts governor did not argue for the city to go bankrupt. Rather, he asserted that the federal government should not bail out the three automobile manufacturers headquartered in the Motor City, and he maintained that they would become more financially stable if they went through a "managed bankruptcy."

He has in recent days doubled down on that stance, even as the bailout has been a declared a success, with General Motors announcing just last week that 2011 was its most profitable year ever. Democrats plan to attack him on the issue in both Michigan and Ohio -- where there is also a great deal of auto manufacturing -- in the general election campaign if he becomes the GOP nominee.

His stance apparently has come back to haunt Romney as he finds himself trailing Santorum in his native state, where his father served as governor and was the chief executive of American Motors.

Campaign aides declined to discuss the impact the Times' choice of words has had on the race's trajectory, particularly in Michigan. Nonetheless, Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom said Monday on MSNBC that Michigan is not a "must-win" state for the candidate, even though Romney himself said just last week that he wouldn't lose it, and analysts think a win there is critical to his prospects.

But Saul Anuzis, a top Romney supporter in the Wolverine State and the former chairman of the state GOP, said that headline itself "has been extremely deceptive, and not reflective of where his position is on this."

"Democrats, and even his Republican opponents, have been able to use it effectively against him," Anuzis said, adding, "Democrats have been extremely effective at beating him up on this, and they just use the headline."

What's so devastating, he explained, is that "most people don't look into the detail, and they don't understand the difference between the article and the headline." He said the implication is that Romney favored letting the auto industry go out of business, and that confused a lot of people.

"One of the top 10 Republican donors in Michigan to both the state and national party said, 'I can't believe that Romney wanted to let Detroit go bankrupt.' And he was a very smart guy who didn't get beyond the headline. He said, 'Well, that's what the paper said.' If people like that are confused, you can tell how bad it is."

He continued, "I have probably responded to hundreds of inquiries about why Romney would want the industry to go out of business. . . . It really has been a devastating position for Romney to defend. He's gotten the short end of the stick on this."