Detroit Free Press Ron Dzwonkowski column

Jul 31, 2010 — Detroit Free Press

Ron Dzwonkowski

Jul. 31, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- Too bad he can't come back every week. Disrupts traffic, but a small price to pay for a rare win-win day.

President Barack Obama, not the most popular man in the land these days, spent about four hours in Detroit on Friday hearing a lot of applause and thank-yous for the decisions he made to rescue the domestic auto industry. And the president got an opportunity for show-and-tell about what is perhaps his administration's biggest success to date -- GM and Chrysler have both moved into the black and are repaying their federal aid -- albeit one that Obama acknowledges to be far from fait accompli.

Still, the president appeared to be smiling in Detroit a lot more than he does in Washington. And how often in these Tea Party times does any elected official get to walk into two cheering throngs in a single day, as Obama did at Chrysler's Jefferson North plant and again at the GM factory on the Detroit-Hamtramck line?

Meantime, Chrysler exercised some carpe diem of its own to announce a second shift at its Sterling Heights assembly plant, the very one that has twice been on death watch.

Instead of shuttering the place in 2012, Chrysler will add 900 jobs, which should ripple into another 500 at suppliers. CEO Sergio Marchionne, on hand for the Obama visit, also said a third shift will probably be added at Jefferson North, where Chrysler just filled 1,100 new jobs.

Obama had nothing to do with those decisions, of course. But having POTUS in the house does seem to want to make the hosts find some good news to share.

And there's no harm either in having the world's best-known person check out one of your products and pronounce it just dandy. You can't buy that kind of positive attention.

At Jefferson North, Obama declared the new Grand Cherokee "a world-class car."

And at the GM plant, he actually drove a Chevy Volt about the length of a driveway before the Secret Service got apoplectic.

"It performed flawlessly," said Teri Quigley, the plant manager.

Obama pronounced the new electric car "pretty smooth," which may be just enough enthusiasm from our Consumer in Chief to add a few more names to the Volt waiting list.

Obama has said he wants a million electric-powered vehicles on the nation's roads by 2015; it wouldn't be bad for local employment if a good share were Volts.

So all in all, a good day for the president, for metro Detroit and its signature industry.

It probably didn't change any of the expectations that Obama and the Democrats will take some serious lumps in the November congressional elections.

It certainly didn't change the tough, competitive road ahead for GM and Chrysler. And all the talk about the jobs growing in the auto industry doesn't take it anywhere near the employment levels of just a decade ago.

But as Air Force One headed back to Washington, the president had to feel that he was leaving something in better shape than he found it. And Detroit had to feel that it had an important friend in high places.

Newstex ID: KRTB-0048-47492020