typical politician bandwagon jumper

Obama: But, but, but.... it's got cylinder de-activation, they told me it would be efficient!

why not stand out from the other talking heads and promote how awesome it is to drive a car with 340hp?

Appeal to the rest of the country who isnt an eco maniac

GM then immediately announced its new vehicle, the Grand Canyon, a 20-foot SUV/pick-up/van/truck combination car that gets an average of 12 mph. The car is being marketed to suburban soccer moms!

@danio3834:

Most of the people in the country aren't eco maniacs, they just have the sense to recognize that oil ain't getting cheaper, the regimes we buy it from ain't getting any more stable, and the planet ain't getting any cooler.

How's this for irony: Bush actually articulated something better than Obama.

Remember when Bush said a few months ago, "I think American automakers should build cars Americans want to buy"?

He did something unusual there: He correctly described the reality of a situation. Obama, on the other hand, seems to be confused about how supply and demand works.

@BuckDiablo:

By unstable regimes you mean Canada?

And i wouldnt say most people are eco maniacs, but i would say the whole global warming frenzy has spun a little out of control.

Despite the fact that he vastly oversimplified the problems the US automakers have, that Barrack drives a 300C makes me like him even more as a candidate. Conservatives can fuck off because Bush's knowledge of the auto industry goes as far as him knowing that a carburetor was something on his bong back in Yale.

I will fix Barrack's quotation for him: "For years, while Japanese competitors were investing in more fuel-efficient technology for their vehicles, German automakers were spending their time investing in bigger, faster cars," I'm not sure what the American automakers were doing, mainly pimping-out SUVs and creating financial companies that could be spun off when the shit hit the fan.

Well, I was thinking more along the lines of the Middle East, Nigeria, Venezuela and Russia, to name a handful. For greater accuracy, I should have said unstable regimes and regimes who are actively hostile to American interests, with the exception of Canada, who hearts the USA and has plenty of oily sand for global warming deniers to stick their heads in.

@Bumblebee: If you really want to talk about hipocracy then the conservative's claim that they care about "Consumer Choice" is a good place to start.

Would people rather buy less fuel efficient cars from automakers? Depending on gas prices probably, but "Consumers" would also rather buy coca and weed from American farmers instead of soy, and they would rather buy sexual services from the cute girl working at McDonalds than a Big Mac. Where's the your "Consumer Choice" on those issues Bush & Co.?

I'm all for a clean environment, I just don't subscribe to the man-made global warming newsletter.

@no_slushbox:

Right on. Those are some great analogies

@no_slushbox:
no_slushbox in '08!

This comment stream just took a turn for the awesome.

(Commenting on the article, which is far less important: Obama is just following in ol' Gore's footsteps with the "oh, I care so much about the environment" [then turns around and snorts the ashes of a thousand dead baby seals])

so the guy makes a few million in book deals and his family's one car, only car, is an American made 300C. I'm not really that upset about that.

I don't like his energy policy though. One of his major flaws.

@NICKNICK: Thanks for the support, but I'm not going to be 35 by 2008, and I'm not good enough at faking piety to succeed either party.

@danio3834: Do you think I would have a shot a Canadian Prime Minister? It sound like that might be fun.

@no_slushbox: No, I don't want to talk about hypocrisy, not really. I was pointing out an unexpected irony in the hopes of making readers chuckle.

I didn't understand your analogy.

@no_slushbox:

Yeah i think you've got a shot, we turn them over almost every year up here lol

@thefrontpage:

Can you name the truck with four wheel drive,
Smells like a steak, and seats thirty five?
Canyonero! Canyonero!
Well, it goes real slow with the hammer down
It's the country-fried truck endorsed by a clown
Canyonero! Canyonero!
Hey, hey!
Twelve yards long, two lanes wide,
Sixty five tons of American pride!
Canyonero! Canyonero!
Top of the line in utility sports,
Unexplained fires are a matter for the courts!
Canyonero! Canyonero!
She blinds everybody with her super high beams
She's a squirrel-squashin', deer-smackin' drivin' machine
Canyonero! Canyonero! Canyonero!
Whoa, Canyonero! Whoa!

@Bumblebee: My bad, the theme of this post is Barrak's hypocrisy, but you were not talking about hypocrisy. My analogy was in reference to the Bush quote about consumer choice that you referenced.

@danio3834: Sweet. Does the PM get to have a mistress like in France?

But he has kids. You gotta think of what's best for the kids. (That's the standard excuse of Hemi-bashing Hemi-owners in LA, anyway.)

You can fault Obama because he could be driving a more efficient fullsize sedan built in his home-state like say a Ford 500. You can fault him for driving the type of car he's faulting the Big-3 for focusing upon.

However, if they only own one car, and it's actually a car, that's not hugely consumptive. Hard for me to admit it, but I don't exactly see huge hypocrisy here.

(Though, they only fill that flex-fuel vehicle up on E-85 right? :) )

Ah Hell, why not have a car that makes the "who's the quicker driver, me or the Secret Service" game more fun. At least, that would be MY excuse for owning a Hemi. Sure, there are better performance cars, but we're talking a semi-level playing field here.

Forgot, 300C is made in Canada. nevermind.

Sorry CafeRacer. I work in DC. The SS garage is loaded full of blacked out 300C's. So the outrun game would be a dead tie. Matter of fact I got one myself.

Go Barack O. I'm witcha!

@danio3834: Yeah -- he means Canada.

I completely agree with Mr. Obama's and Mr. Gore's position. Big v8 powered cars/suvs, huge houses with lights and ac/heat on in every room, and frequent private jet travel are privileges reserved for the rich and powerful. We the little people must be made to drive econo penalty boxes and to live off solar power to offset their environmental destruction so that their children may also have the opportunity to waste the earth's resources!

@Bumblebee: That's not all that ironic. Few on the left actually understand economics. That or they ignore what they know about economics in favor of what'll get them elected.

I for one am glad that the Big Three haven't focused on tiny, tinny economobiles like what is common in Europe. But to say they "were spending their time investing in bigger, faster cars," while the "foreign competitors were investing in more fuel-efficient technology for their vehicles," is to ignore the increasing size & horsepower of cars & trucks from Honda, Toyota, Nissan, etc... Patting the foreign carmakers on the back for the bad joke that is hybrid technology doesn't help get American carmakers get any closer to where they ought to be.

All Obama's doing is running the playbook handed to him.

This car is Canadian, and it was designed in Germany.
Please.
"The Brampton (Ontario) Assembly Plant in Canada is currently the only production location for the Chrysler 300 Sedan and Touring and Dodge Magnum, and soon-to-be-launched Dodge Charger."

Well I wasn't going to vote for the man anyway so this doesn't surprise me.

I dunno...this news makes me like Obama even more. Shows he actually has taste and makes him more relatable to a car guy like me.

AND...here's the big thing. The article states that the 300C is his family's ONLY car. Yes, he has a one car household for a family of four. HOW is that not socially and ecologically responsible? When you think about the total environmental impact, it's probably better to have ONE slightly un-fuel efficient car made in North America than TWO fuel efficient cars with toxic batteries shipped halfway across the world. GO OBAMA, I say.

Obama is a twit, end of story. He is a real estate ad - there is a pretty picture painted but when you get past the hype and the sales pitch you find that there is little of real substance and lots of little problems.

Seriously - he can't be pres for no other reason than that he has no real executive experience to speak of. Senators are lousy choices to be President.

I am watching Bill Richardson on the Democratic side. He has both executive experience and also more diplomatic cred than Obama.

Did Borat Obama put spinners on his Hemi? Had to ask.

My 300C gets the same real world fuel economy as my mother's 2.9L I6 Volvo . The MDS system performs as advertised getting the same economy as a premium 6 cylinder. As far as Obama is concerned, the automakers in this country do not make a large variety of penalty boxes for one simple reason. Americans don't want them.

@no_slushbox: which McDonald's do you go to? just wondering.

No SRT8? He lost my vote.

How is only *owning* one car more environmentally friendly?

Cars don't pollute while they're sitting in your driveway.

The most eco-friendly thing you could do is have a fleet of like 6 cars, each incrementally more capable than the rest. Driving just 1 or 2 around? take the Smart. 3-4 around town? Prius. 3-4 on the freeway? diesel VW.

That way you're never using more capacity than you need.

So, yeah...he owns only one car? The car that's the direct result of what he's criticizing about American auto makers? Comes off like a stereotypical nonsensical flavor-of-the-week loving Democrat...way to go "Barry"

@fastm3driver:

When I first read this story I knew the 300 was made at Brampton, which is definitely in Ontario, Canada.

@David Thomas:
American made? Where in America is Ontario?

@IppoJ: That's the only good rebuttal I've heard yet to my arguments.

Mad_Science, your math is weak. You entirely fail to account for the fact that a family of four, owning one car instead of two, will find it necessary at times to use alternative transportation because of conflicting needs. Two people can't drive one car in two directions at once, so when there is a conflict, it's likely resolved by such methods as carpooling, public transport, walking, and maybe the best environmental response, staying home when you don't really need to go out. I've no doubt that a family of four travels less miles by car if they own one then if they own two. If you have ever had to share a car, you would know that you think twice before you go anywhere. I won't mention the environmental impacts directly related to the actual manufacturing of that hypothetical second car.
I didnt hear anywhere in that speech a call by Obams for us all to drive tiny econoboxes. Sure, there are only two cars currently for sale in the U.S. that average over 40mpg, versus 113 in Europe. Sure, high milage cars are selling very well, despite the claims of "give em what they want" free market cheerleaders (America's markets have never been free, they've always been highly regulated, unlike, say, those of Somalia). But I think his point is more that it would be great if we Americans could drive the kinds of cars we want, but that they were more efficient. Corportations always go for the easy money, but if the government raised CAFE standards, I assure you that they would find a way to produce a 40mpg Canyonaro. It's just that the Japanese have been moving in that direction on their own for a while, and now have a strong head start.
As for Barack, any man who has a decent shot of getting elected and who also looks like he could play tenor sax in Charles Mingus's band gets my vote hands down. The man is a badass, read his first book.

If what we (the entire planet) spent on oil drilling, refining and distribution on R&D for durable, massive, efficient solar arrays, and i do mean massive, not only would we have all the free energy we could use, but it would have the effect of cooling the earth as well. We didn't heat up the planet - the entire solar system is heating up - but it's still going to suck.

Obama? Yo mama!

"I did not have a Gas Guzzling relation with THAT car, the 300..."

@Spence: Yay! internet argument!

Your argument that having one car is inherently more green because of the choices it forces a family to make is weak because it assumes one will always make the more green choice over hopping in car #2.

Additionally, if you've only got one car, you're more likely to pick a car that fits your most demanding (but least frequent) need. Lets say you occasionally need to tow and occasionally go to the snow. That means your one car that always drive is a 4x4 truck or SUV. If you've got multiple cars, the beast gets driven like 3k miles a year, while the commute miles can go on the diesel VW (see below).

It also assumes that those who would be in car 2 have the luxury of these other options, which might be cheaper, but frequently aren't flexible or fast enough for day to day errands. We can bicker about lifestyle and outing planning all day, though.

One could argue that for every option like walking or PT, there's another less green option, like borrowing the neighbor's H2 or calling a rootin' tootin' pollutin' cab. A V8 92 crown vic is worse than taking your own econobox.

Re: production of more autos. Used cars FTW. They're production pollution already happened. You're also delaying the mess that comes from disposing of them. Admittedly, there's a chance they're not as clean, but I'm thinking something like this:
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/car/326778237.html

another article about Obama's trip to detroit

http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/automotive/column...

doesn't mention the 300C, just skewers him in other more meaningful ways

WTF is wrong with you people? There's nothing wrong in owning a 300C. Weak arguments? WTF is this? A debate tournament? Fckn nerds!

Since there's nothing else to bash Obama for, the general consensus of the clueless right-wing clowns is to talk about his choice of car. WOW. That is great guys. Your work is commendable.

I cant imagine what you would do if Obama was about as reasonable/sane/thoughtful as Bush?

@superbmtsub: I will agree with you that Obama's owning a 300C isn't anything to complain about, but don't mistake this thread for a lack of stuff to bash him about. The