I think it’s obvious this is going to be a big part of the 2012 campaign in midwestern manufacturing states:
President Obama is to visit a Chrysler Group LLC plant in metro Toledo on June 3, the White House announced Wednesday.The reason for the visit, the location, and time were not specified by a White House official. He said final details were being arranged with Chrysler.A Chrysler spokesman would confirm only that the President would visit one of the Toledo-area plants and that top Chrysler executives would be on hand to greet him.
Signs point to the visit being at the automaker’s Toledo Assembly complex, where Jeep Wrangler, Jeep Liberty, and Dodge Nitro vehicles are made. But the stop could be at the Toledo Machining Plant in Perrysburg Township. Industry experts anticipate both facilities soon will receive large investments from Chrysler. This week, work crews were spotted taking deep soil borings, an early indication of site preparation work, in the complex’s southern parking lot, which can be seen from the southbound lanes of I-75.
Bruce Baumhower, president of United Auto Workers Local 12, said he didn’t know whether Mr. Obama would be visiting UAW members at the Toledo Assembly complex, but he said they would warmly welcome the President. “As Mr. Marchionne said this week, without President Obama and what he did to save Chrysler, many of us might be out of a job right now,” Mr. Baumhower said. “So I think everyone would welcome the chance to say thank you in person, and to show him what we’ve done with the opportunity he gave us.”
Cranky former FOX News personality and deeply unpopular Ohio governor Kasich had this to say:
At a news conference Tuesday, Mr. Kasich was asked about Chrysler and its repayment of its government loans. “Here’s what I think about Chrysler: I’m glad that Bob Kidder is the chairman, I’m glad that he has ties to Ohio, and I want him to make more investment in our state. Period” Mr. Kasich said.
Period. So there. Take that, Obama.
eric
hahahahahahaha….epic….fail
Jim, Foolish Literalist
someone sounds a little cranky… maybe he saw that poll saying, effectively, that if he had campaigned on the policies he’s acting on, he’d have lost by 25 points.
A Farmer
Kasich can’t help being a dick. But man, whatever he says, he sounds like a dick.
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
i’m surprised kasich didn’t say; “you know who else found deep soil boring”
Comrade Mary
I never thought a dick would need some Midol so, so badly.
Failure, Inc.
The butthurt is strong in this one.
kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
He’s always cranky. He has a horrible personality. Which probably made him a fabulous FOX News “reporter” and Wall Street financier-type but is less valuable in a governor.
Someone wrote here the last time I talked about Ohio: “Kasich seems to hate us” (in Ohio) and I think that’s about perfect to describe his attitude.
He just doesn’t like us, and the feeling is apparently mutual.
Failure, Inc.
@Comrade Mary: If you fed him Metamucil they’d be nothing left.
cat48
Hey Kay! Guess who was on TV the day that Chrysler was repaying their gubmint loan……our Gov Strickland; who said several times how “courageous” our president was for bailing out the auto companies and how the president “deserved ALL the credit for this success!” He was effusive with praise for Obama & also said several times that the GOP wanted them all to go bankrupt and voted against the autoworkers. He was an excellent salesman. I would have bought a car from him if I weren’t so poor. :)
It was great seeing him and TPM had a poll posted yesterday that showed Kasich would lose by 26 pts. if given another vote between the two.
Brian R.
Christ, what an asshole.
kay
@cat48:
I heard that they are going to use both Strickland and Granholm in Ohio and Michigan to campaign on that. I don’t know if it’s true.
Strickland will be a constant reminder of buyer’s remorse, so that’s good, plus, he and Kasich seem to have personal animosity between them, so Kasich’s asshole nature will come out. Further. If that’s possible.
ruemara
@cat48:
heh, nothing like giving your sinking enemy an anchor.
trollhattan
I’d like to add, investment in America’s industries seems money better spend than “investment” in doomed weapon systems.
washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/army-report-military-has-spent-32-billion-since-97-on-ab…
General Stuck
Let us just hope that the solid jobs gains the past few months continues on, and I think that would seal Obama’s reelection. And the free associative wingnuttery the wingnuts are daily pumping of their right wing ideology will likely help with that, and especially for House seats in 2012.
Their election victory in 2010 was based on baseless fear mongering over HCR reform, and stoking racial anxieties in white voters. They of course, misread that as a mandate to shovel the dogma by the truck load, and dogma never works on American voters, left or right, without some rational basis and clever packaging, on how it will improve peoples lives in basic ways.
Voters only care about deficits and are easily demagogued on that when the economy is bad, and losing jobs. Soon as that changes, or at least starts trending to positive, they could care less about government austerity, and certainly not at the expense of the most popular government program of all time, Medicare.
I follow polls, and I know it’s still early, but trends can be interesting to keep an eye on. Since Ryan has stepped forward to boldly stamp his party as the medicare killer, Gallup’s Daily polling of Obama has settled in to the low to mid 50’s. Desperation and hubris has caused the wingers to abandon their long term, largely successful strategy, of attacking liberal programs at an angle, or flanking maneuvers. Now they are doing a full frontal charge, and the casualties are mounting.
shortstop
When people absolutely hate your policies, constantly acting all sullen and shit helps improve your image.
EconWatcher
Shouldn’t Obama be putting together some kind of big new legislative initiative on “jobs for the future?” Anything he attempts will of course be blocked. But don’t we need to have a specific plan to run on in 2012, when unemployment will likely still be very high?
Or is there already something like this out there, and I just don’t know it (very possible)?
Steve
In a just world, 100% of the votes in Michigan would be cast for Obama in 2012. If not for the auto bailout, we would be down to 49 states.
kay
@General Stuck:
I think he’s okay as long as it’s going in the right direction. I think he’s in trouble if people perceive it’s getting worse. Or, if it does, actually, get worse.
Obama’s likeable enough, at least, unlike Mr. Cranky here:)
Linda Featheringill
@kay:
:-)
[still pining for Hillary?]
Mayflower Madman
on hannity’s radio show, he was always doing ads for jeep liberty. haven’t listened in quite a while. i wonder if he was rooting for his sponsor’s demise?
kay
@Linda Featheringill:
I laughed a lot at that.
Obama is politely and subtly vicious in debates:)
You have to admire pulling that off.
RalfW
Kasich is a fracking ungrateful wanker. His state would be in far, far worse shape if Chrysler had failed. he just can’t stand the idea that he has to thank that black liberal communist Kenyan who hates capitalism.
Oh, wait, Obama didn’t actually nationalize anything in the great recession, now did we, Kasich-jerkwad?
Ben Cisco
Calls for a visual aid.
PeakVT
I hope the Democrats really, really rub this one in. The Repukes were openly advocating letting two companies with about $200 billion dollars in revenue go up in smoke. They were so obviously wrong it made my head hurt thinking about it. I wish I could be confident that Midwest voters will make the Repukes pay, though.
Amanda in the South Bay
So, is the consensus now that we’re gearing up for a repeat of the 1996 election? It certainly seems like it.
flukebucket
@General Stuck:
The Confederate Party using that Gettysburg military strategy.
Linnaeus
@Steve:
Ideally, yeah, but Michigan has internal political divisions just like every other state. The folks who won’t vote for Obama don’t see the bailout as a good thing and they of course blame the workers who were helped the most by it as the “real” cause of Michigan’s problems.
shortstop
@Steve: Absolutely. He saved their jobs, their houses, their…but, but, but…black people. And liberals. And Obama is the biggest abortionist in the history of the world.
BC
Yeah, he bailed out the auto industry, but he did it by giving the UAW the reins of power – at least, that’s what my rightwing buddy says. It’s not the bailout they are mad at (now), but because he did it and did not dismantle the union.
grandpajohn
@PeakVT: Plus all the workers at the satellite plants that make the components for them, this would have been in the hundreds of thousands. My daughter here in SC would have probably lost her job, and SC is a long way from the midwest. the domino effect on employment would have been catastrophic
Frankensteinbeck (The ex-Uloborus)
@shortstop:
He is a long drink of water.
Anoniminous
@flukebucket:
Pickett’s Charge went REALLY WELL until he took that swing to the Left.
There’s a moral here.
:-)
NonyNony
@kay:
That was me. And it’s true – the man HATES Ohio. You can feel it off of him every time he opens his mouth to say anything that isn’t a scripted speech.
I honestly think it’s why he was chosen to be the Republican nominee for the state – his hatred of the state makes it easier for him to dismantle everything and sell it off piece by piece.
Mnemosyne
@BC:
To be fair, that was their complaint all along. They really didn’t give a shit one way or another about the actual company. All they wanted to do was decimate the union.
Sort of a shot across the bow for their later anti-union legislation in Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, etc.