Obama's Auto Task Force Owns Foreign Cars, Will Media Care?

Obama's Auto Task Force Owns Foreign Cars, Will Media Care?

By Noel Sheppard (Bio | Archive)
February 23, 2009 - 10:17 ET

Imagine for a moment John McCain was President, and few of the people on the task force he created to repair the crumbling auto industry owned American cars.

Would that be a public relations nightmare?

Well, an article published Monday by the Detroit News revealed that most of Barack Obama's newly announced Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry don't patronize the companies they've been appointed to rescue:

The vehicles owned by the Obama administration's auto team could reflect one reason why Detroit's Big Three automakers are in trouble: The list includes few new American cars.
Among the eight members named Friday to the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry and the 10 senior policy aides who will assist them in their work, two own American models. Add the Treasury Department's special adviser to the task force and the total jumps to three.
The Detroit News reviewed public records to discover what many of the task force and staff members drove, but information was not available on all of the officials, and records for some states were not complete.
At least two task force members don't own a car, and there are still two open slots on the 10-member panel that will be filled by the secretaries of labor and commerce, who have not yet been appointed.
The co-chairs of the task force -- Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner and White House National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers -- both own foreign automobiles.
Geithner owns a 2008 Acura TSX, registered in New York. He once owned a 1999 Honda Accord and a 2002 Acura MDX, according to public records.

Is this a bit of a public relations problem for the Adminstration and something that media would be criticizing if a Republican was in the White House?

—Noel Sheppard is the Associate Editor of NewsBusters. Follow him at Facebook and Twitter.

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Perspective

February 23, 2009 - 10:31 ET by KC Mulville

There are people who spend their days calculating what they think everyone else will do. But sometimes, you just have to look in the mirror. When you were faced with a buying decision, what did you do? And here, these guys mostly chose foreign cars. They should reflect on why that is.

That is, by the way, the essence of capitalism. It's one thing to estimate how the masses will behave, but capitalism is built on each individual making choices in his own pursuit of self-interest. It's hubris to think that we can correctly calculate the ins and outs of how 300 million citizens interact. Capitalism believes that it's better for everyone if individuals make choices based on what they do know (their own interests), rather than pretending to guess what you don't know. So instead of making policy based on models of how you think people should behave, why not base your models on how people actually do behave? Start with yourself.

No and Yes.

February 23, 2009 - 10:33 ET by Hunter12

Is this a bit of a public relations problem for the Adminstration and something that media would be criticizing if a Republican was in the White House?

No, this isn't a PR problem because it will not be mention elsewhere in the MSM. If this were a McCain administration, this would lead hard every day on every show.

"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last." - Sir Winston Churchill

Well that's just being consistent

February 23, 2009 - 10:33 ET by c5then

Most of the folks he is consulting about, and putting in charge of, the economic "bail-out" don't understand free-market economics either.

Hey, I got the wrong "CHANGE"!

Alan Keyes / Sarah Palin - 2012

Two task force members don't

February 23, 2009 - 10:34 ET by SickofLibs

Two task force members don't even own a car?

That's taking limousine liberal to a whole new level.

I fully expect MI Gov

February 23, 2009 - 11:03 ET by TN Mom

I fully expect MI Gov Grandholm (sp) and the UAW to plan a massive protest march on washington demanding that team obama buy American only cars!!!!!

Noel, please send an email to MI gov, Mayor of Detroit, and UAW asking for their response to the article in the Detroit News; this must be a slap in their faces...

Simple answer?

February 23, 2009 - 11:37 ET by Delsa

NO!

Those Who Can't Do . . . Govern

February 23, 2009 - 13:07 ET by Junk Science Skeptic

This would be amazing if not for the fact that the current task force situation duplicates the makeup of most government agencies.

Worse yet, the majority of the automotive press have never purchased/owned a new vehicle, foriegn or domestic, yet somehow they pass themselves off as experts.

More information

February 23, 2009 - 13:19 ET by slickwillie2001

I'd like to see more data on this. How about one of the big pollsters taking a poll that correlates who you voted for or party affiliation with what you drive? That might be interesting. Or someone could survey all the members of Congress for what they drive, those that drive themselves anyway.