Motor Trend Bitch-Slaps Lush Rimbaugh

-=[ Rush Breathes Fumes ]=-

It is clearly apparent with anyone with a relatively functioning pre-frontal cortex that Rush Limbaugh is so dedicated to destroying Obama at any cost that he is doing everything he can to undermine the prospects for GM’s rebirth from the ashes of bankruptcy. The reality is that General Motors is gaining business and reducing the government ownership share. Nevertheless, that hasn’t deterred the Lush from beating the war drums against “Obama motors.” Politico reports:

Limbaugh told listeners that his radio program last year canceled an advertising campaign with General Motors because he “knew this was coming.”

Wow, Rush! Why not just actively discourage companies from hiring people, since that would help destroy what’s left of the middle class.

The fact is that GM’s plug-in hybrid electric car, the Chevy Volt, has been rolled out to rave reviews by car magazines across the board and was named 2011 Motor Trend Car of the Year. Motor Trend raved:

This is a fully developed vehicle with seamlessly integrated systems and software, a real car that provides a unique driving experience. And commuters may never need to buy gas!

… This automobile is a game-changer.

Now, you know this shit got the prissy-assed conservatives’ panties in a collective wad. In fact they went into their patented, feces-flinging act. This also forced Limbaugh to expand his attack to include the respected car enthusiast magazine. ThinkProgress has the story (and Motor Trend’s too-pretty counterpunch):

... Motor Trend announced that it had named the breakthrough plug-in hybrid Chevrolet Volt as its 2011 car of the year. Conservatives immediately picked up on the story and attacked Motor Trend. The magazine “awarded the Obama-approved, government-subsidized Chevrolet Volt its annual ‘Car of the Year’ appellation,” the Weekly Whore Standard whined. Referring the federal government’s auto bailout -- which turned out to be hugely beneficial for GM and the ailing industry -- conservative Washington Post columnist George Will complained about the government “spending some of your money” to produce the Volt. But right-wing radio blow-hard Rush Limbaugh was perhaps the most vocal critic. The Volt has been in Limbaugh’s sights for quite some time. His campaign against the innovative car was launched last August (!!). Staying completely in form, Limbaugh said of the Motor Trend award this week, “[O]f all the cars in the world, the Chevrolet Volt is the Car of the Year? Motor Trend magazine, that’s the end of them. How in the world do they have any credibility? Not one has been sold [and] the Volt is the Car of the Year.” Last week, one of the magazine’s editors, Todd Lassa, shot back at Limbaugh, noting that GM hasn’t sold any Volts “because it’s not on sale yet”:

So, Mr. Limbaugh; you didn’t enjoy your drive of our 2011 Car of the Year, the Chevrolet Volt? Assuming you’ve been anywhere near the biggest automotive technological breakthrough since… I don’t know, maybe the self-starter, could you even find your way to the front seat? Or are you happy attacking a car that you’ve never even seen in person? [...]


All the shouting from you... can’t distort the fact that the Chevy Volt is, indeed, a technological breakthrough. And it’s more. It’s a technological breakthrough that many American families can use for gas-free daily commutes and well-planned vacation drives. It’s expensive for a Chevy, but many of those families will find the gasoline saved worth it. If you can stop shilling for your favorite political party long enough to go for a drive, you might really enjoy the Chevy Volt. I’m sure GM would be happy to lend you one for the weekend. Just remember: driving and Oxycontin don’t mix. [emphasis added]

That was a bitchslap if I ever saw one... LOL!

Lassa also noted that the Volt isn’t some left wing “tree hugging, Obama-supporting Government Motors” conspiracy, but was in fact conceived of well before Democrats regained control of Congress in 2006 and well before Obama began his campaign for the presidency. Lassa even points out that former GM executive “Bob Lutz, who famously decreed, ‘Global Warming is a crock of shit’ introduced the car two years before Bush gave GM its first bailout from TARP pocket change.” [emphasis added]

“Limbaugh’s beef with the Volt isn’t a question of automotive aesthetics or engineering,” MLive.com’s Jeff Wattrick notes. “He just doesn’t like the Volt because it’s one of them librul eel-eck-trick cars that Muslim-Socialist Obama forced on the real ‘Mericans in Detroit.”

Bingo! I give major props to Motor Trend for standing up to and deflating the hypocritical right wing draft-dodging, chickenhawk, dope fiend.

Finally, many other independent reviewers are raving about the Volt. Here’s Pulitzer prize-winning automotive columnist Dan Neil, writing in the (Murdoch-owned) Wall Street Journal on the Chevrolet Volt:

A lot of people don’t like GM because: 1) the bailout, or 1a) Obama; or 2) the United Auto Workers; or 3) because some Monte Carlo or Cutlass Sierra or deuce-and-a-quarter left them walking a long time ago. That’s understandable. These are sour times. But for the moment, we should suspend our rancor and savor a little American pride. A bunch of Midwestern engineers in bad haircuts and cheap wristwatches just out-engineered every other car company on the planet. And they did it in 29 months while the company they worked for was falling apart around them. That was downright heroic. Somebody ought to make a movie…. [emphasis added]

... it works like a champ. Actually, it’s extraordinarily efficient...

USA Today notes, “Chevy’s easy-driving Volt could be your only car”:

Most impressive, though, is that the Chevrolet Volt is a premium execution of a pleasant-looking, easy-driving small car -- one you’d probably be satisfied to have as your only vehicle (assuming you don’t need a big car or roomy back seat)...

Instant torque of the electric motor made the car quick in traffic, less so at highway speed.

Volt lacked the road racket and wind noise that mark some small cars. The drivetrain was quiet, free of the whine and other faint, unpleasant noises that accompany some electric machines. Smooth, too -- electrics inherently are….

CNN/Fortune/Money’s judgment from “Chevy Volt can go the distance”:

The Volt, it turns out, is a really good, fully functional automobile that could just save you a lot of cash on gasoline, too...

The Volt has a sophisticated, almost luxury-like, feel over the road. The steering is very responsive and the battery pack, which runs down the center of the car and across the back, provides a nice weight balance. Braking, often a weak point in hybrid and electric cars, is also smooth and predictable. The Volt’s interior is trimmed out in a way that makes it look appropriately high tech. It has few buttons or knobs, mostly touch-activated bumps. It all works pretty nicely.

I could list tons of examples of rave reviews of this car from a wide range of magazines. The bottom line? The Volt is a very good car and oh, it can drive for 40 miles without using any gasoline. This should be good news and applauded, but apparently anything that makes Obama look good, even if it’s beneficial for the nation a s a whole, will be torn apart by corporate cocksuckers like Rush, Beck, George Will, and the rest of the hyenas.

Eddie

(h/t to Climate Change and ThinkProgress for the original reporting)