Under Obama, Another One Bites the Dust

From Eric Dondero:

The Obama administration is shutting down yet another iconic American company: Hummer. An overseas acquisition sale fell through, and rather than choosing to save American jobs, mostly in the hardhit Mid-West, and keep the company afloat, the administration has selected a "slow scale down of operations."

Reports Bloomberg via Business Week:

Winding down the brand will take several months, Nick Richards, a GM spokesman, said yesterday. Some of the 3,000 people now employed at Hummer work on other vehicles, so GM doesn’t know how many jobs will be lost, he said.

The Hummer brand was iconic of Americanist values; Strength, vitality, even patriotism. The vehicle was a favorite of surivalists concerned over increasing Islamic attacks on the United States and incursions on the US border from illegal aliens. Continuing:

Hummer sales began in 1999 with the $140,000 H1, a 7,600- pound SUV (3,400 kilograms) patterned after the all-terrain military vehicle popularized for road use by actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, now California’s governor. The 6,600-pound H2 debuted in 2002, followed by the 4,700-pound H3 in 2005.

From CarandDriver.com:

the company first catapulted into the spotlight for the unflinching, survivalist nature of its military vehicles...

Regulations and massive oversight with Approval Process may have finally killed Hummer

There are subtle indications of a direct link to the Obama administration's policies and big bureaucracy at government-owned General Motors. Jared Gall of CarandDriver opines this morning:

We also wouldn’t ignore the fact that the history of the Chinese auto industry suggests that, if a company really wants to build a Hummer, it will just go ahead and build something that looks exactly like a Hummer without going through the convoluted process of buying rights and proper tooling.

From the HummerGuy.net:

news reports were indicating that there were obstacles in the approval process, but offered no official statements from GMnews...

Naturally Hummer fans are distraught. From HummerGuy.net comments:

* Yeah, and that obstacle is our magical Kenyan. But don’t feel singled out, Hummer-lovers, Obama is f**king things up all over this great country.

* F*****g Obama! and F**K GENERAL MOTORS!

* It is sad that so many American workers are going to lose their jobs.

Photo of Hummer HX model premiered in 2008, to attract young customers and first time buyers.