Obama Meets With Top Automakers Amid Tension

Barack Obama is meeting with two of the Big Three in encounters the Wall Street Journal says “could thaw festering tension” between the Dem and America’s automakers. A year after Obama criticized the companies for fighting fuel-economy standards and rewarding “failure with lucrative bonuses for CEOs,” he met with Ford’s chief yesterday in a summit the businessman called “productive.”

The candidate will sit down with GM’s CEO today, and will talk about health care and R&D support. He has spent little time in Michigan because of the botched primary. The Journal notes that the automakers may be especially keen to build good rapport with the 44th president after rocky relations with the 43rd. (More Barack Obama stories.)