Enemies of the president who have been programmed by Fox News to listen for cue words took special interest in Detroit's demise, as they remembered the president claiming that he had saved the city. Now millions have, with glee, played President Obama's words on a continuous loop. In their convoluted minds of buzzwords and conjecture, they sincerely believe they have presented a rational argument and evidence of failure by President Obama.
The video clip comes from President Obama's weekly radio address of October 13, 2012. The president's entire three minute speech was about the auto industry. The word Detroit was mentioned three times, while the word auto was used ten:
Just a few years ago, the auto industry wasn’t just struggling – it was flatlining. GM and Chrysler were on the verge of collapse. Suppliers and distributors were at risk of going under. More than a million jobs across the country were on the line – and not just auto jobs, but the jobs of teachers, small business owners, and everyone in communities that depend on this great American industry.
But we refused to throw in the towel and do nothing. We refused to let Detroit go bankrupt.
The auto industry was often referred to in the media as 'Detroit.'
Review the campaign strategy of Mitt Romney who was quoted in the NY times as saying he wanted to let Detroit go bankrupt. Romney meant the auto industry and not the city. Romney only used the word Detroit after he presented his thesis about the auto industry:
If General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won’t go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed.
Without that bailout, Detroit will need to drastically restructure itself.
Romney advocated allowing the companies to go bankrupt, and to be liquidated and broken apart and sold to foreign entities.
The president's decision, which was hounded as a mistake by Republicans, saved over a million American jobs. These jobs were not just that of autoworkers, but of workers in surrounding communities too. In actuality for every one job in an auto plant, there are 2.6 additional jobs supported in the local economy according to a study titled, "The Economic Impact of the Automotive Industry on Urban Communities" by the Citizenship Education Fund.
These were jobs all around the country, and not just in Michigan. The collapse of the auto industry would have led to the loss of an estimated three million jobs.
Those blaming President Obama also seem to whitewash the fact that Michigan has a Republican governor, and a GOP controlled house and senate. That means the Republicans have total control in Michigan, and could have given Detroit help for the last several years.
Gov. Rick Snyder is the person whom Republicans should be wagging their fingers at, as he ran on a platform of not allowing Detroit to fall into bankruptcy. Now that the city has gone bankrupt, Snyder says the state will not offer Detroit cash payments.
Snyder failed, and a likely scenario is that he allowed it to happen. Why?
Where there is misery, there is also opportunity. There are many eager buyers, including the owner of Quicken Loans, who wish to buy the city of Detroit for pennies on the dollar while being welcomed as conquering heroes when they do inevitably arrive. That, however, is a different subject.
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