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Is Obama Targeting GOP-Leaning Car Dealers? Perhaps! Or Perhaps Not!

A Washington Examiner piece today suggests that in the recent round of Chrysler automotive dealer closings dictated by the Obama administration, dealers who had Republican ties or were GOP donors were unfairly targeted.

Is it true? I have no idea! But that doesn’t stop me from passing it along, because I love a burgeoning maybe-scandal and want to get in on the ground floor. Oh, and because the narrative does indeed include one of our cherished Arkansas ties, in the form of Chrysler dealerships owned by former Clinton chief of staff Mack McLarty:

Also fueling the controversy is the fact the RLJ-McLarty-Landers chain of Arkansas and Missouri dealerships aren’t being closed, but many of their local competitors are being eliminated. Go here for a detailed look at this situation. McLarty is the former Clinton senior aide. The “J” is Robert Johnson, founder of the Black Entertainment Television, a heavy Democratic contributor.

Also targeted for closings were dealerships owned by a Republican congressman from Florida. But all the arguments for this appear to be rather heavily anecdotal, so unless you have time to work up a spreadsheet on all the closings nationwide and run a statistical analysis against FEC contribution records or something, we’ll just put this one in the “not yet proven” file.

UPDATE: Interesting analysis from lefty poll jockey Nate Silver, who suggests that if Republican donors are more heavily represented among the closings, it’s because auto dealers in general tend to be more Republican, based on the numbers.

Arkansas blogger Nick Gripes has additional questions.

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6 thoughts on “Is Obama Targeting GOP-Leaning Car Dealers? Perhaps! Or Perhaps Not!

  • At least the GOP can rest assured that they never did anything like that…

    Reply
  • Wait, Senator Jim Hendren got a dealership closed down. It was just north of the Missouri line I think. I am not sure if it was a Chrysler dealership but it is still competition.

    McLarty’s new motto “we destroy the competition”.

    Reply
  • So, Mark, look at the competition that Hendren gave to the McClarty group. Doesn’t McClarty have a dealership in … Bentonville??

    Hmmmm, maybe it is only anecdotal. But maybe not.

    BTW, it isn’t McClarty’s new motto…. It’s Obama’s.

    Reply
  • Obama thinks he’s Tony Soprano now- strong-arming legitimate, legal rights and claims from hedge funds… mafia-style, including union death-threats… so he could hand 55% of Chrysler over to the UAW, who donated $5M to his campaign.

    If that’s not stealing, I don’t know what is… it doesn’t matter how much you dislike hedge funds.

    Now he’s destroying the evil capitalists that didn’t support his fraudulent, disingenuous campaign?

    The White House says there’s “no evidence”- note that Hitler was careful to only give verbal orders, too… and Obama’s not new to this sort of thing.

    Obama’s completely out-of-control. But what did anyone expect with a neutered press, compliant congress, and cabinet full of sycophants?

    Reply
  • Fourche River Rex

    I love a good conspiracy theory. I’m 99% certain that the Illuminate rule the world, that Oswald had help, Apollo 11 was a fake, and Howard Hughes ate babies (I just made that last on up…I don’t believe that.) I’ve even tried to start my own conspiracies about Obama being the bastard love child of MLK and Nancy Reagan. I’m prone to believe such things.
    But this is quite possibly the most bat-shit crazy thing I have heard in at least 3 days. I love it! Count me as a bona fide believer! Okay, got to go drink some drano to flush out the microscopic mind control robots the government puts in our flouridated water.

    Reply
  • I think for right now bloggers are asking the wrong question about this subject. We should not be looking at who had the most closings, but rather who was most likely to be closed. Thus far all of the analysis I have seen has only looked at the closings and not the entire population. I think that the really minutely small percentage of democrat owners that got axed is compelling at this point, but does not on its own suggest wrong doing. As you said, a more complete analysis must be done, and even then I would want a whistle blower before pursuing this thing.

    Reply

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