At auto show, Obama takes swipe at Romney

[highplainsdem]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/31/us-usa-obama-autos-idUSTRE80U2BC20120131

(Reuters) - After getting behind the wheel of shiny new American cars at a Washington auto show, President Barack Obama took a veiled swipe at his most likely White House opponent Mitt Romney for having opposed the 2009 auto bailout.

"The U.S. auto industry is back," Obama told reporters who watched the Democrat take the driver's seat in a number of vehicles, including fuel efficient and electric models, muscle cars, SUVs and trucks made by General Motors (GM.N) and Chrysler.

"It's good to remember the fact that there were some folks who were willing to let this industry die. Because of folks coming together we are now in a place where we can compete with any car company in the world," he said.

GM regained its title as the world's top-selling automaker in 2011, less than three years after the bailout that many Republicans, including Romney, decried as wasteful.

-snip-

[Populist_Prole]

1. Ha ha! Bet ya' that frosted Mitt's behind

Good jab.

[titaniumsalute]

2. AMEN my brotha.

Seriously. I'm so happy Obama is goign to start nailing these motherfuckers on this issue. How the hell can anyone in Detroit (or Michigan) look at Romney in a positive light regarding the auto industry? Let them fail, let them die. Well, not only did they survive, they are kicking ass and thriving.

[JNelson6563]

9. Amen on all points from this Michigander!

[HopeHoops]

3. Mitt would have bought them out, sold all the assets to Japan, and fired everyone.

That's the ONLY thing the asswipe knows how to do.

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

15. Bingo!!! My thoughts, exactly...

... that Mitt/Bain would be one of the firsts to jump in and offer to process the liquidation and putting the retirement plans onto the Federal dime, but to China, not Japan. So much of what GM does now, they learned from partnerships with Toyota, and to a smaller degree, Opel (rembember the Cadillac Catera? underpowered but nice).

And Mitsubishi and Chrysler were/are together on the DiamondStar auto plants. Mitsubishi bought some big chunks of equity/ownership of those partnership plants three years ago to help Chrysler's cash flow. I know of at least one in Illinois, not sure where the rest of the DiamondStar plants are in the U.S. of A. And I recall pundits saying that Chrysler plants were going to end up being bought and shipped piece by piece to China.

[HopeHoops]

16. Ford did the same thing with Mazda - used them as an "R&D wing" so to speak.

The Probe was essentially an MX-6/626 and built in a US-based Mazda plant. Same with the 91+ Escort and (I believe) the 323. There were a lot of crossovers, both as complete vehicles and basic technology. In some cases the only difference was whether the bolts were metric or US standard heads. The threads were the same.

But yeah, I suppose they would go with China instead of Japan now. Japan's power as a manufacturing country is on a steady decline and I'm pretty sure it was within the last couple of days that I read they had a trade deficit for the first time in 31 or so years.

On Edit: The original "Probe" name was from a prototype in the early 80's, as was the Saturn. Neither turned into anything close to the prototypes. GM had a small image of the planet Saturn in the corner of all of its billboards. The original Probe prototype looked almost exactly like the 91 Escort wagon but had flexible wheel well covers on the front and solid ones on the rear. It's drag coefficient was comparable to fighter jets. The Saturn prototype was a James Bond sort of car with gull wings and a tiny sliding window for going through drive-through windows. Not very practical. It had a similar but slightly higher drag coefficient.

[jpak]

4. I bet Mittens avoids GM company towns like the plague this year

0.1%er

100% douchebag

yup

[jpak]

5. I bet Mittens never goes near a GM plant this year

at least not when there's a camera and GM workers around.

yup

[Mira]

6. Did he assess which one has the largest flattest cage floor roof ? n/t

[Itchinjim]

7. Ha!

[chelsea0011]

8. Yes, but it is time for him to stop with the "some folks" and use

Mitt's name and never let up using his name.

[JNelson6563]

10. Certain circles strongly discourage that strategy.

In fact I believe even FDR was a fan of the notion to NOT mention opponent(s) by name.

Julie

[gateley]

11. I was thinking that, too, but maybe wait until Mitt is declared the candidate. I also hope

we run scads of TV spots showing how Obama saved one of our biggest, most important industries.

[Drunken Irishman]

13. Obama will change 'some folks...' to 'my opponent' when Romney wins the nomination...

He's not going to mention Romney by name. That brings him to his level - he'll call him his opponent and nothing more.

[Maven]

17. I wish he would stop using "folks" in general

I am so tired of the phony aw-shucks politician speak in this country.

[onenote]

12. Mitt is never going to live that one down

nor should he.

Of course, not to be a jerk about it or anything, there were a few Obama-haters on this site that also opposed the bailout effort and took the position that the US auto companies should be left to sink or swim on their own. They shouldn't get to live it down either.

[The Second Stone]

14. Mitt had probably sold GM and Chrysler short

and lost a bundle. Guys lit Mitt make money by ruining American companies.

[sarcasmo]

18. This needs to be said at every debate.

[Bill USA]

19. I hope the Dems hit this HARD. Most of the GOP have disparaged bailing out GM and Chrysler. It was

Bullshit of course. To have NOT bailed them out would have put us into a full scale, bread-lines depression - as shuttering the auto industry would have had such a deleterious affect on the rest of the economy. NOw, the Democrats should make sure the Repugnuts eat shit over their partisan ass-hole rhetoric on this.


The GOP: "The less they know, the harder they blow."

[tawadi]

20. +1

[Tripod]

21. Plus one again.

[pipipeng]

22. Spam deleted by ornotna (MIR Team)