Biden mocks Romney by taking credit for moon landing

Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday joked that he would "take a lot of credit for a man having landed on the moon" to point out the absurdity of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney taking responsibility for saving the U.S. auto industry.

“So I’ll take a lot of credit for the fact that this industry’s come back,” he told Cleveland’s WEWS-TV earlier this month even though he had penned a 2008 op-ed titled “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt,” warning that if a bailout was provided to the auto industry then “its demise will be virtually guaranteed.”

"Whoa!" Biden exclaimed to crowd at car dealership in Martins Ferry, Ohio on Thursday. "And by the way, I'll take a lot credit of for a man having landed on the moon. Because although I was in school, I rooted for it."

According to Arthur J. Gonzalez, a former federal judge in U.S. bankruptcy court, G.M. and Chrysler only survived because they went into a managed bankruptcy strengthened by the government bailouts that were approved by Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

“One thing is clear, without government support in one fashion or another, there were no sources of funding,” Gonzalez told ABC News earlier this year.

Speaking to an audience at New York University last month, Biden suggested the following slogan for his re-election campaign: "Thanks to President Obama, bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive."

“You have to ask yourself had Governor Romney been president, could he have used the same slogan in reverse?”

Watch this video from CNN, broadcast May 17, 2012.