Romney to Fund Think Tanks as President?

During last night's third and final presidential debate of the 2012 campaign, Mitt Romney said that he is fine with the US government funding of think tanks.  Here is what he said:

We in this country can — can compete successfully with anyone in the world, and we’re going to. We’re going to have to have a president, however, that doesn’t think that somehow the government investing in — in car companies like Tesla and — and Fisker, making electric battery cars. This is not research, Mr President, these are the government investing in companies. Investing in Solyndra. This is a company, this isn’t basic research. I — I want to invest in research. Research is great. Providing funding to universities and think tanks is great. But investing in companies? Absolutely not.

Since tons of Romney advisors come from think tanks, an embrace of them by Romney is no surprise.