The Unknown Candidate: Friedman's Quick Fix

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Friedman's Quick Fix

Tom Friedman legitimately goes after U.S. automakers and their biggest enabler, GWB, declaring, "The sooner General Motors gets taken over by Toyota, the better off our country will be." Right on, Tommy-boy.

A Quick Fix for the Gas Addicts
By Thomas L. Friedman
The New York Times

"You want to do something patriotic, G.M., Ford and Daimler-Chrysler? Why don't you stop using your diminishing pools of cash to buy votes so Congress will never impose improved mileage standards? That kind of strategy is why Toyota today is worth $198.9 billion and G.M. $15.8 billion. G.M. is worth just slightly more than Harley-Davidson, the motorcycle company ($13.6 billion).

President Bush remarked the other day how agonizingly tough it is for a president to send young Americans to war. Yet, he's ready to do that, but he's not ready to look Detroit or Congress in the eye and demand that we put in place the fuel-efficiency legislation that will weaken the forces of theocracy and autocracy that are killing our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan %u2014 because it might cost Republicans votes or campaign contributions.

This whole thing is a travesty. We can't keep asking young Americans to make the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq and Afghanistan if we as a society are not ready to make even the most minimal sacrifice to help them."

Op ed reprinted (except for bastardized first sentence) here.

Photo credit: Thomas Friedman. (Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times)