Are you getting the idea that the new President is really good at coming up with great new ideas that can’t be implemented. On the very day the Democrats in the Senate denied President Obama the options of building a new prison in the U.S. or bringing any Gitmo detainees entry to the country, the undaunted president announced another great new idea that will never be implemented. Why?
First of all it will destroy what’s left of the automobile industry in the U.S. Next, it will assure the loss of Democratic control in the House and Senate. As the polls come in, the poor Democrats like Dodd and Reid who are going to lose the 2010 election will scream foul.
In business there was an old adage that said you can mess with employees except in a few critical areas: their office workplace or their company car. Americans don’t want to be told what they have to drive. Obama never worked in the private sector so he never learned that .
Americans are not as stupid as our elected officials. They recognize the new CAFE standards for what they really are. First, most of us know the auto industry is in trouble. They can’t retool every two years, especially if they are broke. They also know that small cars are unsafe. They know this is a precursor to a big gas tax increase. They know that they will have to pay a huge tax to buy the cars they want and in many cases need to drive. They intellectually know that there is a need to reduce emissions, but when asked to vote with their pocketbooks, they will vote against this. We all know that conservation is important, but they want to make the choice, not have it shoved on them.
The fallout from this will be exactly as it was with the big idea to close Gitmo. The groundswell will come from the soccer Mom’s who voted for Obama. It will come from the unemployed construction workers who will pay a big price to buy new trucks. There will be some from environmentalists who know the battery disposal is worse than an emission problem from gasoline. It will bring back the fact that the Obama administration is reneging on a campaign promise to drill offshore.
The Chinese are quietly locking up available supplies of new and old crude oil sources with contracts to fuel the millions of new cars they plan to put on the road in the next few years.
All of this adds up to another big Oops from the President. He will eat this crow just as he is digesting the Gitmo faux pas. It will taste even worse and will a much bigger meal.
It brands him as a socialist. It is the best thing that has happened to the Republican party in months.
God Bless you President Obama, your massive ego and boundless ambition to destroy this country has hit a big speed bump.
