Vice President Joe Biden dedicated this morning’s weekly radio address from the White House to the comeback of the American auto industry.
Filling in for the president while he’s returning from overseas, Biden said Chrysler’s repayment of its federal loans demonstrates that “one of the important sectors of our economy is on the rise again.”
Biden also saluted General Motors for its announcement that the Detroit-Hamtramck plant will expand to three shifts, adding 2,500 jobs.
According to Politico, this may be just the beginning. They’re reporting that the success of the auto bailout program will serve as a key campaign theme during President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign.
I’m not sure that approach will gain much traction, except in a few key Midwestern states. After all, most of America didn’t give a damn in 2008-09 whether the Detroit car makers survived or not. And much of the national media coverage of the Chrysler pay day was fairly muted, with very little reflection on how wrong all the bailout critics were.
 
Here’s a piece of the VP’s speech:
“Just a few days ago, on Tuesday, Chrysler Corporation announced that they were repaying the taxpayers for the loans we gave them when we came into office.
“In the words of Don LaForest, of the UAW – and I want to quote him – he said, ‘It’s mind-boggling that we can go from near-extinction to full employment in two years.’
“What you didn’t get to hear in my rendition of his quote is the tone of his voice: It was full of pride. Genuine pride.  Because I can tell you he knows – as my dad used to say – that a job is about a lot more than a paycheck. It’s about dignity.  It’s about respect.
“And I heard the same pride, and the same feeling of dignity, when I called the Jefferson North Chrysler plant in Detroit the day Chrysler paid back its debt.  I talked to a UAW worker – her name was Frances – a line worker, who said her dad had worked on that line before, and that she had been out of work for two-and-a-half years before she was hired a year ago back to the plant.
“I got the same sense when I went to Bonneville and Son, a Chrysler dealership in Manchester, New Hampshire a couple days ago.  85 employees came out, stood out there in the lot with me.  85 people. All of whom knew and said, had Chrysler liquidated, had we not helped them, they wouldn’t have a job. 
“When President Obama and I came into office, we faced an auto industry on the brink of extinction. Total collapse.
“At the time, many people thought the president should just let GM and Chrysler go under. They didn’t think the automobile industry was essential to America’s future.
The President disagreed – and, in addition, he wasn’t willing to walk away from the thousands of hard-working UAW members who worked at GM and Chrysler – and in many cases, not only all their lives, but as second and third generation employees. And he certainly wasn’t going to abandon an industry that had meant so much to our economy, and so much to so many for so long.
“So, he said if GM and Chrysler, and their management, and all their shareholders were willing to do the difficult work of making themselves more competitive, we would support giving them another chance.
“And because of what we did, the auto industry is rising again. Manufacturing is coming back. And our economy is recovering and it’s gaining traction.”

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