To add more context:
Mitt Romney, the author of this op-ed, went on to be the republican nominee in 2012. By then this had proven to be a very bad take.
I don't know that he ever really had much chance against an incumbent Obama, but I think this alone would have lost him Michigan... Romney was born there and his father was governer of Michigan so this came off as a betrayal. In any case, this was a good talking point if you wanted to argue he had a lack of vision.
