No Volts for Limbaugh, Beck

[NINETY EIGHT REGENCY]

No Volts for Limbaugh, Beck

Automotive News -- August 2, 2010 - 12:01 am ET

Official word of Chevrolet's $41,000 price for the Volt was one of those announcements that didn't take industry-watchers by surprise. We've known about the Volt price strategy for, what, two years?

But the news got the nonautomotive media rumbling. And -- here's a shock -- there was a political edge to the reaction.

Conservative talk show hosts, never fans of government involvement in the auto industry, saw the Volt's price as evidence that "Obama Motors" was in the ditch.

Right-wing radio and TV host Glenn Beck said of President Barack Obama's recent visit to Detroit: "Here's President Obama in the all-new Chevy Volt, the electric car that goes 40 -- count 'em, 40 -- miles before the electricity runs out. And it can all be yours for the low, low price of $41,000. That's quite an accomplishment. The Nissan Leaf goes 100 miles and costs $32,000. So I apologize. Barack Obama has clearly turned that ship around."

He didn't mention that the Volt, unlike the Leaf, also has a gasoline engine that turns on when the battery runs low, running two electric motors that extend the range by about 300 miles.

Rush Limbaugh: “Nobody wants this.”

Rush Limbaugh, Beck's ideological counterpart, also seemed to think that a Volt put the driver on a 40-mile tether. "That 40-mile range has to include you getting home and staying home three to four hours to charge the thing," Limbaugh fumed. "It's [a] 20-mile range."

Limbaugh also carped about the price and told listeners why the feds felt it necessary to add a $7,500 tax credit: "Obama and the government are admitting nobody wants this."

Read more: http://www.autonews.com/article/20100802/RETAIL03/308029958/-1#ixzz0vSEwkMFN

[siegen]

All the political nut jobs are coming out of the wood works. Their overlord must have circulated a newsletter that read something like this: "If you want cookies at Sunday's meet, attack the Volt in your next article. Distort facts, the public doesn't know! gogogo!"

[hyperv6]

If Bush was in office MSNBC, ABC, NBC and CBS all would be doing the same bashing.

Both sides use the media and have meeting on what to say and where to day it.

In the case of MSNBC so few watch no one notices.

Even if GM was not bailed out I think the Volt would have still happened just a little later.

Obama and the Volt are really not related. The Volt project was started long before he was considered for prez and other than the bail out that sped it up really had nothing to do with it. So as I see it we can neither give blaime or credit to him for this car.

Cheap good photo ops are hard for someone to pass up with falling approval ratings.

It will be interesting if the Volt fails [which I do not believe it will] how photo's like this could come back to haunt anyone seen in one. Imagine a photo of Nixon in a Edsel.

Politics are nothing but silly games anymore with high stakes.

Edited August 2, 2010 by hyperv6

[FAPTurbo]

Way to conveniently not mention the Volt never was some pet 'Obama' project guys.

Limbaugh also carped about the price and told listeners why the feds felt it necessary to add a $7,500 tax credit: "Obama and the government are admitting nobody wants this."

WHICH ALSO APPLIES TO THE NISSAN LEAF YOU FAT F&*^ING FANATIC!

[GXT]

Even for these guys, this is beyond moronic.

To be fair, the government bailout and winning the hearts and minds probably was a big reason why the Volt went ahead. But to be even more fair, it was BUSH who gave the first bailout money to GM.

Edited August 5, 2010 by GXT