Have you ever heard of Nikola Tesla? He was a Serbian engineer who emigrated to the US in the late 1800's. He obtained some patents and found financial backers to help him set up laboratories across the country. Although he made some money from his inventions, he ended up a virtual recluse.
Tesla's abilities as a showman made him famous, but he in the end he lived alone in a room in the New Yorker Hotel from which he made unusual statements to the press. He gained a reputation as "the mad scientist".
Fast forward to the Obama administration which likes to take credit for saving the auto industry, except that out of the stimulus money they gave half a billion dollars in loan guarantees to an electric car company which can't seem to become profitable. As Mitt Romney said, Obama doesn't just pick winners and losers, he has a penchant for picking losers.
The car company is called TESLA, named after the engineer and "mad scientist". It is a luxury high end, really cool looking sports car which runs on batteries. It is headquartered in California.
Why would President Obama give so much money to an electric car company when people who work for Ford in Louisville, and Toyota in Georgetown (and which has it's North American headquarters in Erlanger Kentucky), and GM in Bowling Green are watching their industry struggle?
Because it's Obama, and he had a ''green czar", and he thinks spending our money is his prerogative.
The next time you hear about somebody buying a TESLA ask them how much they really care about the auto industry and the people it employs, and then judge whether they seem to have an "Obama" kind of mind.
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