"This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal"
When then Senator Obama delivered that
uplifting speech I knew he was going to be president and we were going to win a major battle in the fight for America's soul. America was going to elect a person that could motivate Americans to tackle important things like universal health coverage and climate change.
Then in one of his first acts President Obama continued the irresponsible Bush auto bailout. We now know Romney's prescient op-ed had motivated GM to prepare for inevitable bankruptcy; and Obama and Rattner had little to do with the "successful" outcome. Liberals should have cheered the bankruptcies of GM and Chrysler. These two companies along with Ford are the most irresponsible corporate actors on the planet and their ridiculous SUVs have needlessly contributed to global warming and the ongoing destruction of the planet. Even though Republicans don't believe in global warming, Romney didn't think twice of advocating bankruptcy for Detroit because they had built ridiculous autos like the Hummer and Excursion. Bush and Obama's no strings attached federal money was the worst thing one could do for these companies that quite frankly deserved to be liquidated due to killing the planet.
So why do I think Detroit is worse than oil companies or the airlines when it comes to global warming? Airlines are constantly trying to burn fuel more efficiently and oil companies just supply the oil. Detroit was making inefficient autos in defiance of CAFE regulation all the while other nations were developing more efficient engines and autos. Liberals are also somewhat responsible for the SUV craze as documented in "Bobos in Paradise". So in 2008 Detroit's proverbial chickens had come home to roost. The oil spike had made SUVs too expensive to operate and GM and Chrysler that depended on sales of Suburbans and Jeeps were in trouble. I was happy because for years I had warned of the dangers of Detroit building gas guzzlers while the rest of the world developed more efficient autos (although I did feel bad for the auto workers employed by Detroit).
So why I am I writing about this now? Well it turns out Romney's big lie of the 2012 campaign, that Fiat was more likely to manufacture Jeeps in China, is actually true and Obama was the one that told the BIG lie. Fiat is now going to build Jeeps in China which is exactly what Romney warned about in 2012. So now American gas guzzlers will proliferate in China to the detriment of the entire world!?! Fiat has invested a great deal of money in China and because it is a foreign corporation it does not care about American workers. If Obama had not agreed to the deal with Fiat Chrysler might have been more likely to manufacturer Jeeps in the US for the Chinese market, but Fiat already had a presence in China.
So what was Obama's BIG lie that helped him win in 2012?
"We refused to let Detroit go bankrupt"
This
blatant lie was crafted in the desperate aftermath of Obama's first debate debacle and was a play on words of Romney's op-ed title, "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt". First off, GM and Chrysler did go bankrupt but Obama lies so easily nobody took notice in October 2012. Obama vilified Romney's bankruptcy advice, but Obama actually took his solid advice after his attempt to save Hummer proved futile-- Hummer would have to be liquidated, just as Romney advised in November of 2008.
So why was Obama's 2012 lie so awful? First it undermined one of the greatest speeches in American history, now was NOT the moment "rise of the oceans began to slow", now was just the time the government threw money at a corporation to try to save the Hummer!?! Second, it was just a blatant lie meant to demonize a good man that defied his party and gave good advice, so it was the politics of old which also contradicted his words that June night when the air was thick with hope.
So when you see our fellow earth dwellers lives being destroyed by climate change know that Obama's lies and our votes contributed to the destruction...let's not make the same mistake in 2016!!