In a speech that hit hard at the failings of Detroit automakers, Mr. Obama, a Democratic presidential candidate, said Japanese companies had done far better than their Detroit counterparts to develop energy efficient vehicles.

Mr. Obama, speaking to a sold-out meeting of the Economic Club of Detroit, proposed stricter fuel economy standards, wading into a debate under way in Washington on increasing the corporate average fuel economy, now at 27.5 miles a gallon for cars and 24 miles a gallon for light trucks. ~The New York Times

Romney is going to be upset that someone is horning in on his modern, fuel-efficient car and technological transformation shtick, and in Michigan no less!  Meanwhile, Obama continues to follow the inevitable trajectory of any Stay-Puft politician who attempts to become a serious quantity on the national stage: to overcompensate for the glowing media frenzy that initially surrounded him and gave him a reputation for being charming but superficial, he must gradually become obsessed with details of policy that will either drive people up the wall or send people to sleep.  Having the media image of the best of JFK and RFK together, he is doomed to become a statistic-spewing Gore clone.  Just as he was anxious and uncomfortable in the first debate, he will continue to flail around and give dreadful policy address after dreadful policy address.  In the end, he was going to have to say something, and whatever he said was going to weaken his candidacy significantly. 

At least he didn’t talk about the “quiet violence” of poor fuel efficiency standards.