Diary of a Dearborn Democrat - The President Drops By

Some of the folks were here to celebrate a big new manufacturing investment, others wanted to hear the President weigh in on the heated right-to-work issue, and still others just wanted to cheer Barack Obama following his big local victory last month. . . .for the White House, however, the trip to the Detroit Diesel plant on Telegraph in nearby Redford Township was all about fiscal-cliffsmanship. - - - IT DIDN'T REALLY MATTER, THOUGH, AS ALL OF THE MESSAGES FIT WELL INTO A WELL-RECEIVED POLITICAL TAPESTRY. - - - The National Message, part of the President's campaign to support his position in the year-end budget talks, centered on support for the middle class. He got a lot of applause when he promoted his tax hike for those filing over $250,000, and he hit a real hot button when he said that if the GOP holds up a solution, everyone will see their taxes go up about $2,000. . . Today's speech, his first appearance in Michigan since an April event at the Henry Ford Museum, was part of his effort to woo popular opinion and put public pressure on Republican leaders to deal on the President's terms.  - - - The JOBS MESSAGE, which was the real reason Daimler turned their plant into a rally site, focused on the company's announcement by senior exec Martin Daum that the company is investing $120 million in new heavy duty engine projects that will create 115 new jobs (employment now 2300). The new transmission and turbocharger hardware was cited by the President for making the plant the only one of its kind in the US where all heavy duty engine components are produced under the same roof. And Daum underscored that the new Daimler engine is the best in the  world. . . But thus was my favorite line of the day - from the POTUS:  "Since 1938, Detroit Diesel has been turning out some of the best engines in the world.  Over all those years, generations of Redford workers have walked through these doors.  Not just to punch a clock.  Not just to pick up a paycheck.  Not just to build an engine.  But to build a middle-class life for their families; to earn a shot at the American Dream.  --- AND MIDDLE CLASS SUPPORT was also the theme of the third message, the inevitable Right-to-Work knock. . . .“What we shouldn’t be doing is taking away your rights to bargain for better wages and working conditions. These so called right-to-work laws, they don’t have anything to do with economics, they have to do with politics.” He called RTW, which is expected to pass in Lansing tomorrow, the "right to work for less" and he decried attempts to create a race to the bottom, with fewer unions, fewer worker regulations, lower wages and slashed benefits. . . The President's remarks on this topic brought the loudest and most sustained applause of the day from the friendly crowd. Even the non-union employees and guests were hooting in support. - - - So there you go, tax fairness, a major investment and anti-RTW, all wrapped up in a simple message: Support Our Middle Class!