The President’s First Plug-In Hybrid Electric

Published by Mattie Reitman, April 8th, 2007 Clean Cars , Government , Humor , Transportation

President Bush may need a little plug-in hybrid 101.

Ford Motor Company’s Alan Mulally saved the President from making a great mistake, preventing him from trying to insert a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle’s power cord into its hydrogen fuel tank (as a side note, why the heck would would a hybrid run on hydrogen??).

Mulally said, “I just thought, ‘Oh my goodness!’ So, I started walking faster, and the President walked faster and he got to the cord before I did. I violated all the protocols. I touched the President. I grabbed his arm and I moved him up to the front.” See the full story.

7 Responses to “The President’s First Plug-In Hybrid Electric”

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1 Jason Misner Apr 8th, 2007 at 11:05 am

…and first Presidential Darwin Award goes to…
2 Jason Misner Apr 8th, 2007 at 11:20 am

Just noticed the man in the background (Good ol’e Chaney)… This may be the the closest America has been to a female president. I bet Pelosi is cursing Ford on this one.
3 Matt Reitman Apr 8th, 2007 at 12:27 pm

Hey Jason, I’m assuming you meant that Bush nearly killed himself with this stunt, thus destroying any remaining public support for his administration, and ushering in a new president (Nancy Pelosi, in this thread). This is as opposed to saying that Bush’s actions were like those of a woman, to suggest that women don’t know anything about cars.

I was confused, I’m assuming others might be too :0)

P.S. - this isn’t something I could ever think to get props for in this forum, until now: my mom’s an amateur race car driver, and coached me during racing lessons for my birthday several years ago. She knows about cars!
4 Janis Mara Apr 8th, 2007 at 3:05 pm

Shrieking with laughter! Thank you for sharing that! And Matt, I’m utterly impressed to hear about your mom. Cool mom!
5 Jason Misner Apr 9th, 2007 at 4:01 pm

Hah! Right on the mark on that one, I suppose I could have been a bit more clear.

…think your mom would be into helping start an international bio-diesel race competition?
6 John Dalhaus Apr 10th, 2007 at 3:00 pm

Can you just imagine the aftermath of plugging the electrical cord into the hydrogen tank? After realizing his mistake, the president would then refuse to set a deadline for withdrawing the cord. Critics would accuse him of rushing into this without clearly thinking about the consequences of his actions. Eventually, President Bush would conclude that the best way to solve this problem is not to withdraw the cord, but instead to push it in even farther.
7 Janis Mara Apr 12th, 2007 at 12:12 pm

News flash: The story about President Bush’s alleged near-mishap was actually a joke told by Ford CEO Alan Mulally. (See http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070411/AUTO01/704110406/1013/BIZ04 for more details.) Apparently Mulally told the story to “roars of laughter” from a group of journalists, the story was then run in a Detroit News business humor column, bloggers started picking it up and the rest is history.

Regardless, it’s all worth it because it inspired John Dalhaus’ parody, above.

Janis Mara
http://www.ecotality.com

About Mattie

Matt/Mattie Reitman got introduced to energy and climate work as an undergrad at Syracuse University, where he helped start a successful campaign to get the university to buy 20% clean renewable energy. At the time, this put SU amongst the top 25 renewables purchasers in the country. Mattie is focused on building the youth climate movement in Ohio, fighting proposed dirty energy facilities, and building campus-community solidarity. He has a degree in women's studies and sociology, and lives in Columbus, Ohio.