Barack Obama flew to Detroit to deliver his message that the U.S. auto industry is the villain for “investing in bigger and faster cars while foreign competitors invested in more fuel-efficient technology.”
This is a Chrysler 300C. It’s pretty, isn’t it?
Dad has one. It’s a well-executed car. It’s slathered in leather and sybaritic pleasures. It’s comfortable and pleasant on the highway, once you get used to the gun-slit windows. I quite like it.
It’s also wicked fast, thanks to the 5.7-liter “Hemi” V8 under the hood. It has 340 horsepower, which is 100 more than the car really needs and twice what it could get by with. But, as I remember someone writing in Car and Driver years ago: with the possible exception of a Dodge Viper in the middle of a frozen lake, more power in a car is always a good thing.
And so it is. I drove Dad’s 300C back from Bowling Green one day last year, and found the power so copious and immediate that holes I was planning to squirt through hadn’t yet opened when I got there. It was great fun getting to know this sledgehammer sedan.
I’m guessing Barack Obama thinks so too, because he owns one. Nearly any other American car has better fuel economy–some much better–but he chose this one.
Who’s the villain? Is it Chrysler for building what he wanted, or Obama for buying what he wanted? And how stupid and short-sighted is it for him to wag his finger at the Big Three with this thing sitting in his garage, given all of the available alternatives?
Hypocritical environmental tongue-clucking is near the top of my list of politispeak pet peeves. Walk the walk or shut the hell up.
You might also like:
- President Obama to criminalize apathy
Michelle Obama is a babe. She’d be, unambiguously, the hottest First Lady ever. She’s really creepin… - The cutting of the nuts and what-not
Can’t not post about this. So it seems that the Honorable Reverend Doctor Minister Jesse Jackson Sr…. - 44. Barack Obama, 2009-
Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States today. I wish him well. Today i… - Barack Obama, spendthrift
From 1789 to 2008, the United States government borrowed a total of $5.8 trillion. (That’s every adm… - Costs of rejecting American exceptionalism, in Crimea and beyond
“No one nation can or should try to dominate another nation.” – Barack Obama, September 23, 2009 I w…
Bravo!