Last updated on February 8th, 2013 at 02:28 am
How do you know when your lie is so big it won’t be allowed to stand? Maybe it’s when President Clinton said yesterday that Jeep has called Romney’s claim “the biggest load of bull in the world.” Maybe it’s when Vice President Biden asks if you have any shame. Or maybe it’s when the CEO of a major corporation takes to newspapers repeatedly to correct you in no uncertain terms, even though they know they risk alienating the frothing Republican base.
Chrysler isn’t taking Mitt Romney’s lies about Jeep moving production to China lying down. Just to be sure everyone has it right, Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne has written a letter published in the Detroit News restating the truth for those who have difficulties with reality.
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Sadly for Mitt Romney, Chrysler’s side of reality is backed up by numbers and it tells of huge success – another fact Romney wants to pretend isn’t happening.
I feel obliged to unambiguously restate our position: Jeep production will not be moved from the United States to China.
North American production is critical to achieving our goal of selling 800,000 Jeep vehicles by 2014. In fact, U.S. production of our Jeep models has nearly tripled (it is expected to be up 185%) since 2009 in order to keep up with global demand.
Marchionne goes on to rub salt in the wound by pointing out how their success (thank you President Obama) has added jobs and will continue to do so, “With the increase in demand for our vehicles, especially Jeep branded vehicles, we have added more than 11,200 U.S. jobs since 2009. Plants producing Jeep branded vehicles alone have seen the number of people invested in the success of the Jeep brand grow to more than 9,300 hourly jobs from 4,700. This will increase by an additional 1,100 as the Liberty successor, which will be produced in Toledo, is introduced for global distribution in the second quarter of 2013.”
Marchionne makes a case for Jeep’s patriotism which only highlights the lack of patriotism in Romney’s Bain Sensata debacle, “Jeep is one of our truly global brands with uniquely American roots…. Jeep assembly lines will remain in operation in the United States and will constitute the backbone of the brand. It is inaccurate to suggest anything different.”
Chrysler has committed that the iconic Jeep Wrangler, currently produced in Toledo Ohio, will never be produced outside of the U.S.
What Jeep is doing is building Jeeps for the Chinese market in China, and they are doing this because they have been so successful and want to expand their brand. They are not moving American production to China. Mitt Romney keeps telling us how much he loves cars and how he’s a car guy — how come he doesn’t seem to understand anything about the car business?
Oh, that’s right. Mitt Romney can’t win Ohio based on his record of “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt” so he thought he’d smear Chrysler and scare Ohioans with lies about their jobs being shipped to China. Romney calculated the cost of lying to you and determined it was worth it. Who cares if he destroys Chrysler’s reputation or terrifies hard working people in Ohio so long as Romney gets what he wants.
Now, imagine Chrysler in this situation was Iran and the Ohioans were Iranian citizens. Any cost to having a leader willing to smear, lie and deceive with no shame in order to get what he wants? What if he wants a war to repay his campaign donors and the military contractors comprising his military “advisers”?
The President visited a Jeep Wrangler assembly plant in Toledo in June, where workers thanked him for saving their jobs. They wore t-shirts thanking him and one told the President, “Thanks for saving my job.” The President responded to the worker, “I appreciate your service, Mr. Dandar.”
Romney would have let an entire American industry go bankrupt and shipped the jobs to China in order to harvest GM and Chrysler for profit. He doesn’t want you to know that, so he’s deliberately lying in order to deceive you.
Image: Obama visiting the Jeep Wrangler plant in Toledo Ohio.THE BLADE/DAVE ZAPOTOSKY. Chrysler “committed that the iconic Wrangler nameplate, currently produced in our Toledo, Ohio plant, will never see full production outside the United States.”
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