President Obama Visits GM Ohio Plant; AutoObserver Follows Him on Twitter
September 15, 2009
President Obama is visiting General Motors' assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio, Tuesday, 
giving a speech on jobs, the economy and, of course, the mention of health care to a packed house of auto executives, local dignitaries and United Auto Worker union employees.
GM CEO Fritz Henderson will host the president at the more than four-decades-old plant that now builds the Chevrolet Cobalt and will soon convert to building GM's all-important Chevrolet Cruze.
The trip marks the president's first one to an auto plant since the federal government's bailout of GM and Chrysler from bankruptcy. He visited several auto manufacturing facilities during his campaign.
AutoObserver's senior contributing editor Bill Visnic will be chronicling the president's visit to the plant on Twitter @autoobserver.
The Lordstown plant is famous in GM's history as one that had been rife with labor-management conflict and had frequently been cited for possible closure by the automaker.
Last year, the plant could hardly keep up with demand for the Chevrolet Cobalt and Pontiac G5 small cars when gas prices soared to $4 a gallon. But then the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the financial markets caused auto sales to plummet, and GM laid off the plant's 
2,800 employees who covered two shifts.
Shortly after, however, GM announced plans to invest $350 million in the plant to build the Chevrolet Cruze, a 40 mpg small car that launches next year in the U.S. and is of critical importance to GM's future. Next month, GM recalls more than 1,000 workers to build the new car. -- By Michelle Krebs
Photos
1 - President Obama speaks to a packed house at GM's Lordstown, Ohio, assembly plant. (Photo by AO's Bill Visnic)
2 - The Lordstown plant will assemble the Chevrolet Cruze.
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 6:10 AM under GM , News , Personalities | Comments (2) | digg this | Seed Newsvine
When will Obama visit a Ford factory? Oh that's right. The President of the United States doesn't have a vested interest in Ford. Isn't this like the commissioner of Major League Baseball buying a controlling stake in the Orioles, signing a bunch of the best free agents as they become available, building them a new stadium, and touting them as wonderful?
Posted by: greenpony | September 15, 2009 at 5:32 PM
Those look like Pontiac G5's in the background.
Later they flew to Rick Wagoner's for luncheon.
greenpony,
The remaining Ford plants are much too busy to stop production to listen a message about how much better off we are now that we owe China (mostly) $700,000,000.00
Posted by: fulcrumb | September 15, 2009 at 8:36 PM