Obama Does Detroit

Brad Plumer: "The knock against Obama is that he often shies away from confrontation, but yesterday he did waltz into a room full of Detroit businessmen and lecture them about the need for stricter fuel-economy standards. (The speech itself was pretty harsh, and he didn't exactly draw applause with lines like this: "Even as [automakers] shed thousands of jobs... over the last few years, they've continued to reward failure with lucrative bonuses for CEOs.")

Good for him. The US auto companies are sort of sitting ducks for criticism at this point, but the car industry is probably the toughest one for a Democrat to take on thanks to the UAW and the general swinginess of Michigan.