Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Kotz / Politics / Presidential Politics Moronic Obama Ad Won't Play Well in Tennessee
Posted by Pete Kotz on Tue, Sep 23, 2008 at 5:04 PM
OBAMA'S CONCERN FOR ECONOMY DOESN'T EXTEND TO THE THOUSANDS OF AMERICANS WHO BUILD AND SELL HONDAS New Obama Campaign Ad Implies It's Bad to Buy a Honda NASHVILLE, TN - The Tennessee Republican Party has some friendly advice for Barack Obama: Those "foreign automakers" who made those cars you criticized John McCain for buying? They employ hundreds of thousands of Americans across the heartland of America, including in so-called "swing states" like Ohio. Today, Obama's campaign released a new and very silly ad attacking John McCain, a certified American war hero, for owning three cars built by international automakers - a Honda, a Volkswagen and a Lexus. The junior senator from Illinois apparently doesn't realize that foreign automakers like Honda, Volkswagen and Lexus-maker Toyota have major operations in the United States, employing hundreds of thousands of Americans. "Perhaps Barack Obama thinks it is okay to attack John McCain for owning a Honda because he doesn't realize that Honda employs more than 30,000 Americans, including thousands of people in the swing state of Ohio," said Bill Hobbs, communications director for the Tennessee Republican Party. "Obama should be proud that so many car makers from around the world have found that American workers are the best in the world, not criticizing someone for buying the cars they make," Hobbs said. "The Obamacrats don't like American jobs that would be created from more domestic oil drilling and, now, Obama doesn't respect the jobs created by Americans building cars." Foreign automakers now operate major assembly plants in California, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina Tennessee and Kentucky, not to mention Ohio, Indiana and Obama's home state of Illinois. "When Barack Obama attacks John McCain for owning a Honda, he might as well be attacking the tens of thousands of people in Ohio, Indiana and Alabama who build Honda Accords and Civics, Pilot SUVs and Ridgeline pickup trucks, - and the tens of thousands of Americans who make their living at dealerships selling Honda products," said Hobbs. "When Barack Obama attacks John McCain for owning a Toyota-built Lexus, he might as well be attacking the tens of thousands of people across America who build cars and trucks for Toyota in Kentucky, California, Indiana and Texas, or work at Toyota's more than 1,700 dealerships across the country," Hobbs said. "And when Barack Obama attacks John McCain for owning a Volkswagen, he might as well be attacking thousands of people who already work for VW at its U.S. headquarters in Northern Virginia or at dealerships across the country, or soon will be among the 2,000 people buildings cars for VW at its new manufacturing plant in Tennessee." Toyota directly employs over 42,000 people across North America. A 2005 Center for Automotive Research study found that Toyota and its dealers and suppliers together generate nearly 400,000 U.S. jobs, including jobs created through spending by direct, dealer and suppliers employees. Honda's new plant in Indiana employs about 2000 Indianans. Overall, Honda has six auto plants and 14 major plants overall in North America, employing more than 37,000 people, mostly in the U.S. The company's engine plant in Anna, Ohio, is its largest engine plant in the world. "Frankly, 'I'm surprised Obama would attack Honda like this," Hobbs said. "After all, two years ago Sen. Obama was begging Honda to choose Illinois as the site of its next auto plant. Maybe he's just mad that Honda chose Indiana instead." In addition to the three auto brands Obama indirectly attacked, it should be noted that many other international automakers employ thousands of Americans. Volvo builds trucks in Virginia - and employs thousands of Virginians. Nissan's American headquarters is in Tennessee, as is its major assembly plant and engine plant - employing thousands of Tennesseans. Volkswagen's American headquarters is located Virginia and the company recently began work on building a new assembly plant in Tennessee that will employ 2,000 people. Kia, Hyundai, Mercedes and BMW are some other international automakers in the U.S. A recent study by the Ann Arbor-based Center for Automotive Research predicted international automakers will hire more than 38,600 additional workers in the U.S. through 2011. All together, international automakers employ 113,410 workers in the United States according to the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers, including 65,579 manufacturing workers. CAR predicts that number will rise to 152,000 by 2016. Economists say that for every job created inside an auto plant, as many as six to eight are created in businesses outside.
Comments (24)
Showing 1-24 of 24
God, the RNC lackey types who run this blog hate Obama so much, they're just upset that they thought McCain had this election in the bag, until he lied about everything and chose an incompetent and petty nitwit to be his running mate....
like
dislike
Man, you are bloody stupid. The whole point of the ad is that your stooge McCain said I ALWAYS BUY AMERICAN CARS. It was a pander to make such a nationalistic statement, and then it wasn't even true. Don't try to polish this turd with this "Well, some American somewhere earned a buck when he bought his Lexus; therefore, it's an American car."
You two have no idea. Every Toyota I have purchased in the past 20 years was made in America. Get real you two.
Obama does not know what he is talking about.
NOBAMA!
You two have no idea. Every Toyota I have purchased in the past 20 years was made in America. Get real you two.
Obama does not know what he is talking about.
NOBAMA!
Right on, Mark. Pete, did you watch the commercial with the computer muted?
The point is clearly McCain will say anything to get elected. The ad proves it by replaying McCain's lie kissing up to the very employers you call "moronic." At least you had the balls to call it like you see it; McCain, on the other hand, is "full of shit" and Obama called him on it. About time.
If the sides were reversed, conservatives would be calling for latte drinking Honda lovers to move to Japan if they love it so much.
Bonnie, I was going to vote for Obama until you said "NOBAMA!" like that. Really made me think. It's quite persuasive. Says it all, really.
Wait, you mean we're not Obama stooges any more? Next thing, you'll tell me there's no more Hawaiian Shirt Friday.
Another pin-head attack by Mr. Hobbs. The Obama ad doesn't attack Volkswagen, Lexus or Honda. It attacks McCain for lying about his Honda, Lexus and Volkswagen. It's the truth, stupid. The truth used to matter in this country.
The international connection is important and significant because an Obama bill, "The Global Poverty Act," was rushed through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee late last year, with the assistance of Democratic Senator Joe Biden, the chairman, and Republican Senator Richard Lugar. The legislation (S.2433) commits the U.S. to spending hundreds of billions of dollars more in foreign aid on the rest of the world, in order to comply with the "Millennium Goals" established by the United Nations.
http://www.asiantribune.com/?q=node/13378
commits the U.S. to spending hundreds of billions of dollars more in foreign aid
Completely untrue- it says nothing about funding- merely sets a goal of reducing poverty. Quote the part of the bill that says this.
You guys can come up with lies until the cows come home.
The fact is McCain has 7 houses and 13 cars. Two weeks ago he told you "the fundamentals of our economy are strong," though he has also admitted the economy "is not my strong suit."
At the convention of the Grand Old Party, Cindy McCain wore an outfit worth over $250000, but Bill Hobbs would rather tell us about Michelle Obama's $600 earrings. He sure sounds like a talk radio conservative, but Hobbs is just as complicit as anyone for giving you Bush & Co. who are now asking Congress for $700 billion of your money to bail out some other folks with more cars than they can count. If I were him, I'd certainly rather be debating whether Honda is an American company or not.
Why, in Abe Lincoln's time, would a candidate for president "pronounce himself pro-slavery in the North and anti-slavery in the South"? Seems like a one-way ticket to electoral oblivion to me.
"Wait, you mean we're not Obama stooges any more?"
You will continue to be until you have put up an exactly equal number of posts criticizing Obama and/or Biden to the number that you have posted criticizing or mocking Palin.
You've got a long way to go.
I grew up in Flint, Michigan. And while I haven't lived in Michigan for a long time, this ad doesn't seem so crazy to me. It WILL play well there.
Plus, the issue isn't just that he buys foreign cars -- it's that he has 13 cars. That's excessive and the working class folks up north will see it as such.
You will continue to be until you have put up an exactly equal number of posts criticizing Obama and/or Biden to the number that you have posted criticizing or mocking Palin.
Not on your say-so, Bubba. And nothing you can say will prove otherwise.
Why would anyone have seven houses and 13 cars? It seems like you would need at least 14 or 21 cars if you have seven houses.
Okay, so McCain lied. But I just heard Obama's economic guy on the radio this morning still promising to cut taxes for anyone making under $250,000. With the cost of the Iraq war, the Wall Street bailout, and a handsome new round of war on the way in Afghanistan, no way we'll have money for the tax cuts both these guys are promising.
My central point -- perhaps inarticulate -- was that this is the way Democrats have historically pandered to the North, just like Republicans do with things like gay marriage and guns down South. The fact that a rich man owns a fleet of cars -- and a few happen to be foreign -- doesn't mean shit when it comes to putting food on everybody's table tomorrow, just like banning gay wedlock hasn't changed the institution of marriage.
Obama knows there's little he can do to help the Big Three automakers outside of a bailout (which is coming, by the way), since they're all run by breathtaking morons. But the North falls for empty populism just like the South falls for empty conservatism. And at the end of the day, we're all still screwed.
By the way: Gilbert, I love how you're now speaking as if your words are etched in stone tablets. Very cool.
Hobbs, I wonder if you posted a factcheck rant about McCain's ad that said Obama wanted to teach kids about sex before they learn to read?
The important part of this ad isn't the statement, in fact I think that is a silly point to argue because McCain does not say he ONLY bought American cars. The real meet of the ad is that he rejected the idea of supporting auto company debt, a position that was set out by George II. The economic carnage for Michigan if the autos go under would be catastrophic. It will play well because Michigan voters already understand what that carnage looks like.
None of that is mutually exclusive with supporting people who do not claim to be American car patrons from buying the foreign auto of their choosing.
Speaking of the Morth/South difference, though, how about you talk a bit about how the Alaskan economy (1/3 federal spending, 1/3 oil) is positively correlated with oil unlike every other state in the union and the implications that has for Palin's experience on the national economy?
Wait! My Toyota was made in the United States? It was put together by lazy, two-hour lunch-taking, overpaid, underworked, uncompetitive, unskilled, "outsource"-whining employees? Last time I buy one of those Union labor-supporting cars!
Is BMW still safe?
By the way: Gilbert, I love how you're now speaking as if your words are etched in stone tablets. Very cool.
Posted 09/24/2008 at 11:57:10 AM
Since Gilbert's brain is a stone tablet, I would say he is justified in speaking this way.
All the talk about whose car is made where and by who is a bunch of nonsense and should be abstained from by all sides.
As should all the other protectionist nonsense.
The idea that artificially protecting certain manufacturing companies and/or industries and their employees and stockholders from foreign competition creates a higher value net economic national outcome than does allowing consumers to buy whatever they want from whoever they want and reap the commensurate benefits of lower costs, more choices and higher quality was always total BS to begin with.
"Since Gilbert's brain is a stone tablet..."
Whereas yours is what nature abhors most - a perfect vacum.
Relax Mike S. Toyota's plants in the U.S. aren't union.
And to get back on track here, this ad will do well in Michigan. It points out that McCain will say what people want to hear, regardless of the truth. And it shouldn't offend those hard-working Honda employees in Ohio and Alabama and wherever else they are because it was an attack on McCain, not Honda, regardless of how Bill Hobbs tries to spin it.
The important part of this ad isn't the statement, in fact I think that is a silly point to argue because McCain does not say he ONLY bought American cars. The real meet of the ad is that he rejected the idea of supporting auto company debt, a position that was set out by George II. The economic carnage for Michigan if the autos go under would be catastrophic. It will play well because Michigan voters already understand what that carnage looks like.
