Obama's First Presser

By Cernig

It was Barack Obama's first press conference today and the consensus is that he handled himself very well indeed, a refreshing change from stumblin', bumblin' Incurious George. Only one minor fact-checking gaffe - which led to him apologising to Nancy Reagan for saying she held seances at the White House when in actual fact she consulted an astrologer, which is just as daft. It was apparently Hillary who held seances, even if that's not what she wants to call them.

However, over at Unqualified Offerings, Thoreau has a more substantial criticism of Obama's actual policy plans:

You know, for all the decades of talk about fuel efficiency, alternative energy, and energy independence, the most fuel efficient personal vehicles on our roads are primarily foreign brands.  So why, pray tell, should bailing out inefficient Detroit automakers be the top priority if our goal is energy efficiency?

And the easy answer is that, like the big finance houses, they are too big to fail.

Comments

[sfHeath]

Well, one of the P-E's highest priorities is domestic job creation, after 1.2m jobs lost in the last twelve months. I think kicking Detroit into green gear, for P-E Obama, is more about environment and working class than helping failed automaker CEOS.

[Peter G.]

The problems go much deeper than you think. It is not that the big three North American auto manufacturers did not see what was happening on the roads. The fact is that they could not possibly compete with foreign manufacturers in the low margin end of the market. If they had tried to do so domestically they would have failed. That's why they made the strategic alliances they did and largely import such small economical vehicles as they have to market. Their economic health was and is dependent on cheap oil supporting larger loaded high margin products. They and their employees will have to find a way to massively boost productivity if they are to maintain high wages and benefits in the teeth of foreign competition especially if they wish to compete domestically in this end of the market.