Nope — we're pretty sure he thinks the General, FoMoCo and Das Chrysler still need to make "relevant" cars, but Micki Maynard over at the Times is reporting he's at least willing to talk to them now, allegedly in a meeting set up for May 18th. Maybe we'll see if they'll let our Wonky Washington sibling tag along. At least a meeting's significantly better than some of the other comments the man's made — you remember some of his greatest hits:
"I can't make your automakers profitable." Disassociatin' With Dubya: Detroit Automakers Disowned by Prez [internal]
"...they need a product that's relevant."
Bush to GM, Ford: Drop Dead! [internal]
I wonder why the sudden about-face? Isn't it kind of ironic it took the replacement of Andy Card (a former auto exec) as Chief of Staff to get the Administration to start realizing they at least needed to be talking to major non-oil related domestic businesses? And didn't we all think George Bush didn't care about auto people? We'll ponder those thoughts, you ponder the article below.
Bush to Meet Big 3 for Talks on Fuel Issues and Pensions [New York Times]
Related:
Disassociatin' With Dubya: Detroit Automakers Disowned by Prez, Bush to GM, Ford: Drop Dead! [internal]