In Detroit, Obama Rocks Boat

Barack Obama called out the U.S. auto industry yesterday in its own front yard, reports The Wall Street Journal. In a sold-out speech at the Detroit Economic Club, the Illinois senator blamed much of the industry's current problems on automakers, whom he criticized for making larger and larger vehicles as foreign competitors pushed fuel efficiency.

The senator also called for stricter federal mileage standards and legislation to encourage development of alternative fuels and hybrid vehicles. And he wasn't apologetic for doing so in the country's automaking capital. "I don't believe in making a speech like this in California, and giving a different speech in Detroit," he told the Journal. (More Election 2008 stories.)