Is Obama on the verge of political suicide?

[red states rule]

Is Obama on the verge of political suicide?

Hillary hopes so



Barack's Sister Souljah Moment?
The Democratic candidate's tough rhetoric backfired in Detroit. Plus, griping about gas prices.

May 11, 2007 - Nine years ago this week, Al Gore warmed up his run for the presidency by making a visit to Motown and speaking to the Detroit Economic Club. I covered that speech and recall that Gore was entering hostile territory. Detroit, an SUV boomtown in those days, was deeply skeptical of the vice president, who famously called for the death of the internal-combustion engine. But Gore, keen on endorsements from Big Labor and contributions from wealthy auto execs, changed his tune in Detroit. "Here in Motor City, we recognize that cars have done more than fuel our commerce," he rhapsodized. "Cars have freed the American spirit, and given us the chance to chase our dreams

My, how times have changed. This week, Sen. Barack Obama attempted to fuel his presidential run with a scalding speech to the Detroit Economic Club, castigating Motown's big wheels for driving our dependence on foreign oil. "For years, while foreign competitors were investing in more fuel-efficient technology for their vehicles, American automakers were spending their time investing in bigger, faster cars," Obama told an audience stunned into silence after greeting him with a standing ovation."Whenever an attempt was made to raise our fuel efficiency standards, the auto companies would lobby furiously against it, spending millions to prevent the very reform that could've saved their industry. Even as they've shed thousands of jobs and billions in profits over the last few years, they've continued to reward failure with lucrative bonuses for CEOs."

What played as an act of courage in the rest of the country, is being seen as political suicide here in Detroit. "People were looking for so much more from Barack Obama," Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick told me. "He left a lot to be desired with that message." Kilpatrick, who introduced Obama to that thunderous ovation, met with him privately afterward and told him he missed an opportunity to woo Michigan voters by addressing their concerns about soaring health-care costs and fair trade. "As president, he needs to say what he would do to stand up for these other issues," says Kilpatrick, "instead of just slamming these companies for their [lack of] fuel efficiency." And while it once might have seemed a slam dunk that one the nation's leading African-American mayors would endorse Obama, Kilpatrick makes it clear that he's not nearly ready to do that. "I'm not going to disengage from him simply because of one speech," Kilpatrick said. "But he needs to work on that message."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18620352/site/newsweek/

 

[red states rule]

Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Obama Preaches Fuel Efficiency From the Back Seat of an SUV
At his Town Hall meetings yesterday, Sen. Barack (the-sky-is-falling) Obama lectured everyone at the Metropolis Community Center about gas guzzling.

Ignoring the fact that it's August, and generally warm in Illinois, BO (Barack Obama) claimed that "the blame for the world's higher temperature rests on gas guzzling vehicles". His solution: switch to "higher mileage hybrids". Problem is, following his lecture, BO left in his GMC Envoy after "admitting to favoring SUV's".

BO's press secretary Tommy Vietor tried to cover up the junior senator's hypocrisy by explaining that what BO "has long advocated is the use of vehicles that are more fuel efficient, including, but not exclusively hybrids." According to Vietor, "the vehicle BO travels in while in Illinois is a Flexible Fuel Vehicle (FFV), which can (but I guess doesn't) run on e85, a blended fuel made of 85 percent ethanol."

However, according to the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition the GMC's Envoy is not e85 ready.


http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2006/08/obama_preaches_.html



How typical of a liberal - do as I say and not as I do

 

[red states rule]

Obama talks hybrids, but his ride has a Hemi
May 11, 2007

BY MARK PHELAN

FREE PRESS COLUMNIST

Sen. Barack Obama talks a good game. He also drives a good car, but the two are not entirely compatible.

The Democratic presidential contender was in Detroit on Monday, oozing charisma and environmental awareness as he chided local automakers for building too many big vehicles and not enough fuel-efficient hybrids.

So his choice to drive a V8 Hemi-powered Chrysler 300C emits a whiff of hypocrisy along with its exhaust fumes. Obama's choice proves once again that fuel economy is seldom the No. 1 factor when Americans buy cars. The 340-horsepower 300C has plenty of room for the lanky senator, his wife, Michelle, and their two daughters. It gets 25 miles per gallon on the highway, good for a big sedan, but far short of hybrids and compact cars.

His campaign Thursday said it leases a flex-fuel vehicle, and Obama, whose family has just one car, "believes we need to work together to achieve energy independence."

So although owning a hybrid is politically correct for presidential aspirants -- many report that they do -- this week reminds Detroit that campaigning still is sometimes about doing what I say, not what I do.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070511/COL14/705110399

 

[William Joyce]

Huh... it might be suicide in Detroit, but probably no biggie elsewhere. Detroit's been falling for years anyway. He may end up looking courageous.

 

[maineman]

RSR cuts and pastes one article and then answers himself on two successive posts (because no one else bothers) with TWO MORE cut and past articles.

Come on...who, besides me, is beginning to think that RSR isn't really a real person at all, but a crudely programmed newsbot who is restricted to posting conservative opinion pieces and one liners?

 

[red states rule]

RSR cuts and pastes one article and then answers himself on two successive posts (because no one else bothers) with TWO MORE cut and past articles.

Come on...who, besides me, is beginning to think that RSR isn't really a real person at all, but a crudely programmed newsbot who is restricted to posting conservative opinion pieces and one liners?

Having a problem with the libs saying one thing to the people and doing another in thier own lives?

You should be used to it will your party

 

[red states rule]

RSR cuts and pastes one article and then answers himself on two successive posts (because no one else bothers) with TWO MORE cut and past articles.

Come on...who, besides me, is beginning to think that RSR isn't really a real person at all, but a crudely programmed newsbot who is restricted to posting conservative opinion pieces and one liners?

Lefties Fail in Defense of Obama Error
Posted by Matthew Sheffield on May 14, 2007 - 14:08.
After Barack Obama was caught (see earlier post) for incorrectly stating that Japanese cars get an average of 45 miles per gallon, the left-wing blogosphere swung into action attempting to defend the Illinois senator. Far-left groups cited a report from the Pew Center on Global Climate Change which took official numbers from Japanese auto manufacturers and "corrected" them to appear similar to U.S. fuel economy standards. Trouble is, that "correction" doesn't seem to be accurate as John Hinderaker points out:
What's going on here? Why is the Pew report being cited for a 46.3 mpg average? The answer is that Pew rejiggered the numbers. Pew noted that different countries use different test procedures to measure fuel economy, and it devised a system to normalize those different procedures. The Pew formula says that Japanese mpg numbers are to be multiplied by 1.3. It is this multiplication that generates the 46 mpg figure that apparently has been relied on by Obama and others.

I haven't had time to research the logic underlying Pew's conversion, nor do I intend to. The claim that the Japanese automobile fleet had an average fuel efficiency of over 46 mpg as of 2004, or now, is ridiculous. You can see the top ten fuel efficient cars here. The site lists their EPA city and highway fuel efficiency ratings. There are only two vehicles that allegedly get more than 45 mpg, both hybrids (although in fact, the hybrids have been found to do much worse in actual driving conditions than in EPA tests). After those first two hybrids, there is not a single vehicle on the list that gets 45 miles to the gallon. The Honda Civic, a good example of a Japanese economy car, gets 30 mpg in the city and 40 on the highway. The Ford Focus gets 27/34; the tiny MiniCooper gets 32/40. You can see all of the EPA's 2007 fuel efficiency ratings here; I can find exactly two cars on the list, both hybrids, that purportedly get 45 mpg.

This is why I said that Obama's comment shows that he lacks common sense. Anyone who pays attention--certainly anyone who contemplates delivering a speech attacking the auto industry--should know that a claim that any country's vehicle fleet averages 45 miles per gallon is patently false, as any American understands the words "car" and "miles per gallon."

The Pew report is also inaccurate in another way since it includes as "cars" vehicles that most Americans would consider to be the equivalent of glorified ATVs, thus artificially driving up the "average" fuel economy. This is an apples-to-oranges comparison as Thomas Lifson writes:

[T]he vehicle mix in Japan contains many machines that Americans would not even consider cars. [Hinderaker] is quite correct in that regard. I have lived in Japan, and was even a car owner (a very hot Nissan sports model, one not sold in the USA, if you care to know, which got around 17 miles to the gallon of premium gas). Way, way back in time, before I had the financial ability to own a car, I used to borrow a friend's Honda N360, which had the same basic design as a Mini Cooper, only much smaller. I even drove it once all the way from Tokyo to Niigata, on the Japan Sea coast. That was the last auto trip I ever took in such a small car because it scared the wits out of me. American drivers would never accept such a vehicle. In Japan, where urban streets can be extremely narrow (some of them so narrow that a full size American sedan cannot physically fit), and where people are smaller on average than Americans, such vehicles make sense as city cars. Incidentally, such cars not only save money on gasoline, they are taxed at a significantly lower level than cars with larger engine displacement.

http://newsbusters.org/node/12747