Wow, so prescient! Things look a bit different 16 months later, don't they?
Barack's Sister Souljah Moment?
The Democratic candidate's tough rhetoric backfired in Detroit. Plus, griping about gas prices.
May 11, 2007
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Nine years ago this week, Al Gore warmed up his run for the presidency by making a visit to Motown and speaking to the Detroit Economic Club. I covered that speech and recall that Gore was entering hostile territory. Detroit, an SUV boomtown in those days, was deeply skeptical of the vice president, who famously called for the death of the internal-combustion engine. But Gore, keen on endorsements from Big Labor and contributions from wealthy auto execs, changed his tune in Detroit. "Here in Motor City, we recognize that cars have done more than fuel our commerce," he rhapsodized. "Cars have freed the American spirit, and given us the chance to chase our dreams."
My, how times have changed. This week, Sen. Barack Obama attempted to fuel his presidential run with a scalding speech to the Detroit Economic Club, castigating Motown's big wheels for driving our dependence on foreign oil. "For years, while foreign competitors were investing in more fuel-efficient technology for their vehicles, American automakers were spending their time investing in bigger, faster cars," Obama told an audience stunned into silence after greeting him with a standing ovation."Whenever an attempt was made to raise our fuel efficiency standards, the auto companies would lobby furiously against it, spending millions to prevent the very reform that could've saved their industry. Even as they've shed thousands of jobs and billions in profits over the last few years, they've continued to reward failure with lucrative bonuses for CEOs."
What played as an act of courage in the rest of the country, is being seen as political suicide here in Detroit. "People were looking for so much more from Barack Obama," Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick told me. "He left a lot to be desired with that message." Kilpatrick, who introduced Obama to that thunderous ovation, met with him privately afterward and told him he missed an opportunity to woo Michigan voters by addressing their concerns about soaring health-care costs and fair trade. "As president, he needs to say what he would do to stand up for these other issues," says Kilpatrick, "instead of just slamming these companies for their [lack of] fuel efficiency." And while it once might have seemed a slam dunk that one the nation's leading African-American mayors would endorse Obama, Kilpatrick makes it clear that he's not nearly ready to do that. "I'm not going to disengage from him simply because of one speech," Kilpatrick said. "But he needs to work on that message."
Kilpatrick is kind, though, compared to what others in Detroit are saying. "Sen. Obama embarrassed himself in Detroit with his lack of understanding of the problems facing the automobile industry, and what it will really take to fix them," the conservative-leaning Detroit News said in an editorial beside a political cartoon mocking Obama for criticizing a Detroit SUV that turns out to be a Toyota Land Cruiser. During his speech, the auto execs in the crowd—and there were many—began muttering that he didn't know what he was talking about. (One factual gaffe getting a lot of traction is Obama's assertion that Japanese cars average 45mpg, when the actual mileage is closer 30mpg). "It was definitely uncomfortable," says Eric Foster, a Detroit political consultant who sat near tables full of auto execs. "The mood lightened when he took on the oil industry."
Obama had barely left Detroit's Cobo Hall before lobbyists for the automakers and the United Auto Workers began churning out stats to counter his argument. From the UAW: the jobs of 17,000 workers will be put at risk by Obama's proposal to require a 4 percent annual increase in gas mileage (a suggestion, by the way, first made by President Bush). From Chrysler: Obama's offer of $7 billion to help with the automaker's health-care costs translates to $29 per car, compared to a benefits burden of $1,500 per car the U.S. automakers now bear. "Twenty-nine dollars," says Chrysler spokesman Colin McBean, "is really not a lot of help."
Among the chattering classes in America's car capital, Obama's speech quickly became known as his "Sister Souljah moment." Just as Bill Clinton once tried to show he wasn't beholden to the black vote by criticizing the controversial rapper back in 1992, Obama was now showing he wasn't the typical Midwestern Democrat, kowtowing to Big Labor and Big Factory Bosses. "This was a cheap political stunt," snapped one Detroit auto exec. "He wanted to generate headlines that 'Obama goes in and talks tough to Detroit'."
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