WASHINGTON – As his potential GOP rivals scurried for support on primary day, President Barack Obama tried to leave Michigan voters with one last thought before they headed to the polls: Remember who saved you.

In a speech at the United Auto Workers convention in Washington, the president once again took credit for rescuing the U.S. auto industry and took hard jabs at Republicans who spoke out against the 2009 bailout. Obama specifically referenced the headline that has come to haunt former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who was struggling to pull off a win in his home state.

“Some even said we should ‘let Detroit go bankrupt.’ You remember that. You know him,” Obama said. “Think about what that choice would have meant for this country. … Production: shut down. Factories: shuttered. Once proud companies chopped up and sold off for scraps. And all of you – the men and women who built these companies with your own hands – would’ve been hung out to dry.”

Union president Bob King praised Obama as “the champion of all workers” who “saved our jobs and saved our industry,” an introduction that elicited chants of “four more years!” from a crowd of about 1,700 UAW members.

From wire reports