Gov. Rick Snyder, R-Mich., wrote a column explaining how a Michigan that floundered economically under his predecessor has turned into “the comeback state,” and his reasons make for a study in contrast with President Obama’s view of the economy.

Snyder opens his explanation by recalling the Ford auto parts supplier that opened in Detroit last week and will employ 500 jobs.

“The opening of that plant was made possible not by one person alone but through cooperation and collaboration,” Snyder wrote in The Huffington Post today. Readers familiar with Obama speeches might expect a litany of reasons for how government supported the business, but Snyder portrays a more unassuming state government.

“It required the dedication and hard work of a true entrepreneur, the partnership of other companies committed to success in Michigan, and a supporting role from state and local governments which helped create the environment where the company could plant its roots and grow,” the businessman-turned-governor writes. “And now it will be up to talented employees who will go to work every day and strive to make it a success.”

Contrast that with President Obama’s move to take credit for the success of wealthy business owners during a recent speech in Virginia.

“I’m always struck by people who think, ‘well, it must be because I was just so smart,’” Obama said. “There are a lot of smart people out there. ‘It must be because I worked harder than everybody else.’ Let me tell you something — there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there.” The president continued by saying:

If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.

When discussing the Michigan economy directly, Obama touts the auto bailouts — which he euphemistically describes as a bet placed on American workers — as a way of taking credit for the successes in that state.

“And now, three years later that bet is paying off,” Obama said in Dearborn, Mich., earlier this year. “Not just paying off for you. Paying off for America. Three years later, the American auto industry is back.” (Snyder, coincidentally, wrote his column today apropos of an auto parts supplier that will work with Ford, the one company in the Big Three that did not take a bailout.)

Snyder does tout the state government’s role in helping connect potential workers with certain skills to employers in need of those workers, but otherwise only takes credit for getting out of the way.

“In addition to making connections that help put the right talent with the right jobs, we’ve also taken action to put Michigan on the right fiscal course and enacted policies that tell job creators we’re open for business,” he wrote.