a fundamentalist aversion to to 'other'-speak so;

It is perfectly reasonable that Governor Romney would say...

....the trees are all the right height, people talk without an accent* and most of the cars -- yada, yada...

Innit?

*[formatting entirely mine]

The trees are all the right height? What does that even mean?

It sounds to me like Romney was trying to sound a bit like Garrison Keillor. Without hearing the quote in context it is hard to know.

Brother. Mitt sure knows how to be wrong and offensive on so many levels... as for the former, Michiganders talk without an accent? Gimme a break.

If GM doesn't get a clue pretty soon, Toyota is going to own them, literally as well as figuratively. Although, considering that Toyota began executing the plan that got them where they are today, over 40 years ago, I suspect GM ran out of time awhile back to do much about their fate.

Is the GOP field completely debauched politically, or what?

...and then we leave Michigan, and everybody wonders where the heck we came from. In writing, though, it is a hard accent to make fun of. Their is no obvious way to spell the way we say our vowels. That is one reason I make fun of southern accents here on Salon.

Real Michigan News: It looks as if Romney has a chance in the Michigan primary. It appears his auto industry connection makes a difference among Republicans. However, many Independents will vote, and they may not like him as much. We will find out tomorrow.

so, is he saying that it's a good thing the skies are cloudy all day? And the trees thing is just downright bizarre. Maybe his circuit boards needs some reprogramming.

I think his accent thing might have been directed at Southerners or maybe people in Boston... Surely he can't mean Spanish accents since his whole campaign at this point is based on complaining about all of those brown people who are invading the good ol' US of A. And if no one there has an accent then the "illegals" must not be prevalent there.

I really wish he would get nominated so the Dems would be assured of winning.

I heard a story from a car show in 1997 or so. Toyota* was introducing this odd little car called a "hybrid". Apparently it would get better mileage in general and had some room for getting *really* good mileage and leveraging off both electric & ICE motor strengths.

A big 3 exec came up - I think Ford* - saw the car, said "whatever... now take a look at our newest SUV".

Very anecdotal, likely inaccurate with specifics & some generalities, but from The Way The World Looks it has a ring of (partial?) truth to it.

* Maybe it was Honda & another American car company, but Toyota & Ford work better for this story. :)

I've been wondering about this because yesterday I pulled into a strip mall parking lot and counted no less than five Priuses, including mine, among probably 15 cars total. But this is California, which has been a little ahead of the curve on hybrid cars, not to mention lowering emissions standards. Don't get me wrong, the freeways are still clogged with SUVs but we've come a long way from the day I special-ordered my Prius to be shipped from Japan in 3-5 months time - dealers didn't have the cars on their lots because they were considered an obscure niche market.

It's good to see that it's a national trend, and Toyota definitely deserves our business. They've invested in quality and technical innovation while Detroit was busy investing in shoving SUVs down everyone's throats and lobbying against completely reasonable and reachable emissions standards.

Funny isn't it?

I own a 2008 Mercury Mariner which is a somewhat fancier version of the small version of a Ford Explorer. Why did I buy an SUV? Well, because I have 4 Siberian Huskies - no Prius' need apply - and, at the time, my wife had major issues from ovarian cancer that made the Mariner just right for her. BUT, and this is the key stuff, it's a hybrid that gets 28 mpg city, AND I only drive 5500 miles per year. You can keep your Prius, I'll keep my Ford SUV. Unfortunately, my wife died Dec 22, and it's now just me and the Huskies.

This Christmas, I was staying with my family and had no car to drive (on account of I took the plane to get there). So I went back and forth between borrowing my dad's F-250 pickup (which he hates) and my mom's Prius (which she hates).

I have to say, I hate both of them as well (especially trying to park that damn truck). But I really liked my mom's old turbo-charged Beetle... and its gas mileage was as good as the Prius!

In other news, Michiganders do, actually, have an accent. And in most places, especially in the UP, it sort of looks like the kind of place where people wear a lot of flannel and shoot varmints. And gas stations more eagerly advertise "CIGARETTES! BEER!" than gas.

So clearly Romney is just trying to be a yokel and buy local. Or, ripping off Garrison Keillor's wit with none of the irony or intelligence.

A business can invest resources in R&D or can invest resources in convincing the market that the same old crap is new, improved and will solve all of everyone's self-esteem issues. Call it 'building a better widget' vs. 'polishing a turd.' A smart company achieves some sort of balance of the two approaches. US automakers have been exclusively polishing the same turd so much its turning into dust.

Thanks to incompetent leadership at the Big Three.

Some of the innnovations on the Prius are actuallly licensed from GM and others from the EV experiments in the California markets ...

There is no reason the Prius couldn't be a Big 3 product.

You gyyys! (that's Michigander for, "Y'all" - applies to girls and boys) Ford's (that's SE rural Mich. for Ford Motor Company) mayks a hyyybrid version of the Explorrrerrrr!

[It's impossible to write down the way we say the sound of long A, or long I, or of R, using normal letters.]