"I don't want to run auto companies," President Obama said last week. "I'm not an auto engineer. I don't know how to create an affordable, well-designed plug-in hybrid."
So far so good. But Obama almost immediately morphed into Joe Biden mode:
Seconds after that promising, if relatively vague, opening, though, Obama took much of it back. He couldn't help himself. "But I know that, if the Japanese can design an affordable, well-designed hybrid, then, doggone it, the American people should be able to do the same," he said. "So my job is to ask the auto industry: Why is it you guys can't do this?"
Well, maybe because it can't be done. Or maybe Americans don't want it.
So much for hands-off. George W. Bush may have been this country's first MBA president, but Obama is on the brink of becoming its first CEO in chief -- and that would not bode well for Chrysler, GM or taxpayers.
There's nothing wrong with Chrysler and GM building fuel-efficient green cars -- if they can make money. I'd have no problem whatsoever if one of them manufactured a pink, snout-grilled mini-car that ran on manure -- as long as it proved profitable. (I wouldn't buy one, mind you, but I'd smile and wave as you drove by.)
Taxpayers are on their way to owning eight percent of Chrysler, and 50 percent of General Motors. The United Auto Workers, an organization that backed Obama in the last election--as did every other union--may end up owning more than half of Chrysler.
The feds own a couple of businesses: The United States Postal Service and the perpetually money-losing Amtrak.
Nothing to be proud of.
Rodriguez says Obama is on the road to ruin.
So are America's taxpayers.
Related post:
Obama in full hypocrisy mode in comments about gas guzzlers
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