This is Joe Biden, of course, so the mere fact that he utters incomprehensible nonsense is not in itself news.
But a lot of people are having fun trying to decipher if there
was something meaningful to be discerned here. Visiting the North American International Auto Show in Detroit,
Biden said to Ford Motor Company Chairman William Clay Ford Jr., "Thanks for saving our #."
What?
Now you might think it would be an auto executive saying to Biden, "Thanks for saving our #," although Ford didn't take the bailout money GM and Chrysler took (although Ford has accepted plenty of federal support in other forms, such as loans for green technology development).
Maybe Biden was referring to the relatively better performance of the Detroit Three since GM and Chrysler emerged from bankruptcy, since the subsequent collapse of the domestic auto industry would have led to an intractable embarrassment for the Obama Administration. And hey, they've got ObamaCare for that.
I opposed the auto bailout and I believe to this day that the state of Michigan (where both Rob and I live in case you didn't know that) would have been better off if GM and Chrysler had been allowed to go through traditional bankruptcy, as it is not in our long-term best interests to continue to be so dependent on these three dinosaur companies - and the fact that they're now on the upside of the never-ending boom/bust cycle that has characterized the industry doesn't change that fundamental fact one bit. But be that as it may, the Obama campaign used the auto bailout as a pretty effective (if totally disingenuous) talking point in 2012, so Biden's comment directed at Ford might have really been intended to address the industry as a whole.
If you all had blown it, we might have lost. Thanks for saving our #!
Then again, this is Joe Biden we're talking about, so trying to make sense of anything he says is probably an exercise in foolishness.
