Monday, January 05, 2015

Detroit is back? Obama will visit Ford plant idled due to lack of demand

You have to wonder what the goofs at the White House are thinking.

From the Detroit News:
The White House confirmed Monday that President Barack Obama will visit Ford Motor Co.'s Michigan Assembly plant on Wednesday — a factory that is closed this week because of lagging demand for its small gasoline-powered and hybrid cars.

The visit — Obama's ninth to a U.S. auto factory since taking office and 14th trip to Michigan — is expected to herald the dramatic turnaround of the U.S. auto industry. Automakers sold about 16.5 million vehicles in 2014 — the best annual sales performance since 2006 — as U.S. auto production topped 11 million for the first time since 2005.

The White House said Obama's speech will highlight "the workers in the resurgent American automotive and manufacturing sector now that the auto rescue has been completed and the decision to save the auto industry and the over one million jobs that went with it."
Yes, as a person who sells cars for a living I'm of course aware that demand is up. However, Obama has been touting hybrid cars since before his election as president. But the recent plummet of gasoline prices makes hybrids less attractive. Gas is cheaper, by the way, in spite Of Obama's anti-fossil fuel philosophy.

Obama has brought his liberal parlor "what if?" games to the White House. The real world is much more complicated.

The Michigan Assembly Plant is in Wayne--about 15 miles west of Detroit

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