Obama and Detroit

[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/POLITICS/11/17/big.three.auto.bailout/art.automaker.bailout.gi.jpg caption="Workers leave a General Motors Powertrain plant last week."]
Ron Dzwonkowski
The Detroit Free Press

Given everything else he will have to confront upon taking office Jan. 20, President-elect Barack Obama ought to do himself — and the country — a favor by devoting some of his pre-inaugural attention to the auto industry crisis. He doesn’t need a Big Three bankruptcy and resulting spike in unemployment coming across his Oval Office desk in the first month of his presidency.

Although as Obama keeps reminding the anxious country, America only has one president at a time and he’s not yet it, clearly he can exercise enormous influence on Congress as the incoming chief executive. Beyond that, he says he’s good at this sort of thing — bringing people together to craft solutions to tough problems.

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