McCain ‘sky-rats’ job-challenged Michigan

During my days as a geek working for a rather large information technology firm, we used a term of art to describe the brief, frantic and generally clueless visits from upper management. Because these attempts at management-by-walking-around looked like the combined efforts of seagulls threatening to steal your French fries and rats scurrying for cover, we called it “sky-ratting.”

Yes, Republican candidate Sen. John McCain sky-ratted us yesterday — flew in hastily, dive-bombed, pooped on us and left.

The poop McCain dropped on us was a bunch of hooey about protecting workers, a novel idea coming from Arizona’s senior senator. So far his voting record looks more like he’s going to support the white collar workers in the uppermost reaches of Fortune 100 companies rather than the line workers in manufacturing; he did tell autoworkers not too long ago that many of those line work jobs are never coming back, didn’t he? So which was the truth — that the jobs are gone forever, or that he’s protecting them?

McCain also said earlier in the year that he didn’t support government loans to the Big Three automakers for retooling, yet during yesterday’s visit he advocated them.

In June, Republican candidate Sen John McCain drew a line against the auto industry bailouts during an appearance in Ohio, saying, “I just don’t see a scenario where the federal government would come in and bail out any industry in America today.” As Michigan’s importance as a swing state in the presidential race grew, however, McCain changed his tune. In August he proclaimed, “We should fund (the loan program) and take action that will assist Detroit and its suppliers in making it through this difficult time of transition.”

That’s another big splat of poop.

It’s not clear whether the audience at the General Motors facility in Orion Township accepted the McCain-only poop delivery eagerly or with reluctance, although there are reports that workers chanted, “Obama! Obama!” as McCain left the facility. This isn’t surprising since the UAW has endorsed Obama’s candidacy for president.

On the other hand, you have to give Senator Sky-Rat credit for flying into the mouth of the beast; it’s either sheer stupidity or brazen bravado to coast in low and fast, deliver a payload of hogwash and fly out unscathed. It’s rather surprising he didn’t crash-and-burn given yesterday’s revelation that Michigan’s unemployment rate reached 8.9%, a level not seen since Poppy Bush’s administration in 1991-92.

Worse, this dismal level of employment is directly attributable to losses in the automotive industry, due to a combination of high gas prices slashing demand for new cars, an insufficiency of high gas-mileage vehicles in the Big Three automakers’ product line-up, and annual downtime for seasonal re-tooling in preparation for new model year vehicles that roll out this month. Re-tooling typically provides line workers with a week or two of time off each year; this year, the length of time off stretched, rumored to be as long as 6 weeks.

There are reports that we’ve still not seen the entire effect of $4 a gallon gasoline on Michigan’s economy, which leads me to wonder if the senator from Arizona might actually do something senatorially speaking between now and the election to prove he’s going to save Michigan jobs. So far he’s done little except improve the chances that manufacturing jobs will go overseas.

That’s enough about this particular sky-rat pass overhead; we’ll have more later today on Team McPalin’s townhall event in Grand Rapids.