Obama pledges to help auto plants

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080213/METRO/802130437/1361/UPDATE

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Gordon Trowbridge / Detroit News Washington Bureau

JANESVILLE, Wis . -- Calling the current economic downturn "a failure of leadership and imagination in Washington," Sen. Barack Obama pledged Wednesday before an audience of General Motors workers here to restore economic balance to a nation that has forgotten the middle class.

In a speech heavy on policy specifics, Obama spoke in a makeshift auditorium just above the assembly line floor where more than 2,000 workers build GM's largest sport utility vehicles -- vehicles Obama has criticized in the past as signs of a domestic auto industry unwilling to adjust to a new, environmentally conscious era.

But Obama made no mention of those criticisms -- which began nine months ago with a tough speech in Detroit, one many workers here Wednesday remembered. Instead, flanked by a fleet of Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Denali SUVs, Obama pledged to help GM's oldest continually operating plant and others like it remain viable.

"I know that General Motors received some bad news yesterday," Obama said, referring to the company's record $38.7 billion 2007 losses. "But I also know how much progress you've made -- how many hybrids and fuel-efficient vehicles you're churning out. And I believe that if our government is there to support you, and give you the assistance you need to retool and make this transition, that this plant will be here for another hundred years."

Just a few hours after landslide victories in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., primaries that have installed the Illinois senator the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, Obama pledged to make the interests of working families paramount.

"When I talk about real change that will make a real difference in the lives of working families -- change that will restore balance in our economy and put us on a path to prosperity -- it's not just the poll-tested rhetoric of a political campaign," he said. "It's the cause of my life. And you can be sure that it will be the cause of my presidency from the very first day I take office."

FULL story at link.

[billbuckhead]

1. Is Oprah going to give away more Pontiacs?

[DainBramaged]

2. He can start by insisting Congress increase tariffs on Japanese and Korean imports

Including parts, forcing them to reduce their tariffs and "safety" restrictions on our exported vehicles, allowing us to invest in assembly plants in Japan and Korea, force UAW representation at all Domestic auto assembly plants, and not wait till he is "crowned" President but introduce bills now as a show of good faith. The Country and the industry can't wait that long.

All he is doing is angling for a UAW endorsement. Period.