It's disgraceful how badly Detroit has delivered in recent years. While other automakers were moving towards fuel efficiency Detroit made every effort to be combative and go in the opposite direction. The end result is tens of thousands of lost jobs and years away from competing on a global scale. It is in everyone's best interest to get Detroit producing sensible products that are environmentally friendly and that people want to buy instead of smearing environmentalists.-Chris in Paris, over at AmericaBlog, responding to a speech by Sen. Barack Obama (Democrat-IL) in which he criticized Detroit automakers for their refusal to wean Americans off foreign oil.
As I've said previously, a large part of this is due to piss-poor leadership on the President's part. Had he stepped up to the plate in the days following 9/11 and demanded fuel efficient cars from Detroit - perhaps making such policies attractive by offering substantial tax incentives to the auto companies - Americans would have rallied around the idea. Had the President moved forward with such a progressive policy the benefits for Detroit would have been two-fold: the automakers would be enjoying a huge economic windfall right about now; and, by extension, the city of Detroit would be in the middle of a much needed and long overdue urban renewal.
But alas, George's vision is limited to those oil profits.
Good for Sen. Obama for putting the issue out there. The man's candidacy becomes more attractive by the day.
