CHARLOTTE, N.C. — From dawn to dusk on the first day of the Democratic National Convention, Democratic leaders seemingly used Mitt Romney’s own words against him in front of delegations and national television audiences.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, echoing others, described Romney tonight in his speech as “a person who said in four words, ‘Let Detroit go bankrupt.'”

Except Romney never said or wrote it.

The source of the quote is a November 2009 op-ed Romney wrote in the New York Times. The editorial Romney wrote is not nearly as definitive as that headline, “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.”

It is not news that Romney never said those words. News organizationshave repeatedly

have repeatedly
pointed out

House Budget ranking member Chris Van Hollen (Md.) also pulled out the quote last night on MSNBC and again this morning when making the rounds at meetings today. Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz used the phrase as well on CNN.

In his address tonight on the opening evening of the convention, former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland was more careful in his wording, saying, “Mitt Romney proudly wrote an op-ed entitled, ‘Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.'”