Here's the thing. Robert Gates didn't DECIDE to fight the war in Iraq, he was ordered to, and he did a damn fine job of following orders. He got us deep in the shit, and when he's ordered to get us OUT of the shit as fast as possible, I trust he will follow those sane orders just as effectively as he followed the insane ones. He is, in fact, the best possible person to follow those orders. Nobody knows better where everything is and where it needs to go. The logistical problems of how we got there are precisely the same as the logistical problems of getting us out, only in reverse.And who's the best possible person to deal with the big three? Can I ask you for a second to imagine what Ralph Nader would do as "Car Czar" with billions of bucks and a car industry on its knees? And once you've imagined that, can you imagine anyone else who would better suit that position? Not likely. It's a no-brainer. Nobody else on the planet earth knows the ins and outs of the car industry more than the man who gave us seatbelts and has literally saved thousands of lives.
Who else will take into consideration the fact that General Motors deserves to die for crushing all those electric cars so eloquently in the film "Who Killed the Electric Car?"
Will anyone else consider the air car? I bet Ralph Nader will. He understands that every new technology doesn't have to put the workers for the old technology out of work, and that one simple switch can not only save jobs but the environmental movement, at least as far as automobile emissions are concerned.
Anyone who watched 60 minutes this week knows we're not running out of oil, the Saudis have got this brand new oil extracting monstrosity in the middle of the desert that's completely useless if we stop buying their oil. Sounds like payback time to me. Let's stop buying it. Wouldn't that be the biggest plus of getting rid of the oil guy in the oval office?
What will we replace it with? Name something more plentiful and free than air. Hydrogen is clean but demands millions of new hydrogen stations. Simple hydraulic air cars emit nothing different from what goes in. The only pollution they emit is the pollution already in the air they're filled with. Gas stations already have air compressors. All they have to do is keep those replacement tanks of air full, and everyone can go 200 miles on a cheap fill-up.
There are other ways of retooling. Who knows what's best. I do know I would trust Ralph Nader to do precisely what the job entailed, free from corporate interest and in the public interest.
Liberals have complained that Obama's appointments are way too conservative. As the most popular third party candidate, Nader's appointment to this position would validate the entire concept of third parties. It would be the perfect counterpoint to the Republican appointments, though Nader isn't so much "left" as above the fracas, simply protecting the public against the persistent greed and lies of the transportation industry.
So I've posted a question to the blog on Nader's site. "Would Ralph Nader accept the position of 'Car Czar' if it were offered by Barack Obama?" I await a reply.
MD
