Obama and Biden Visiting Kokomo Transmission Plant

Obama, Biden To Tour Chrysler Plant

The two will be touring the Indiana Transmission Plant II. It builds the Chrysler 545RFE transmission RWD for the Chrysler 300, Dodge Magnum, Dodge Charger (LX) and Jeep Grand Cherokee, according to Wikipedia, which also said, "in June 2010 Chrysler announced a $300 million … investment to retool and modernize the Indiana plant for production of a future eight-speed automatic transmission."

According to the Kokomo Tribune, "White House officials Friday said that with the help of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, and the administration’s auto restructuring plan, “Kokomo is on the rebound today, and unemployment has dropped by nearly 8 percentage points since mid-2009. This will be Biden’s first visit to Kokomo, and Obama’s second. The president visited Kokomo in April 2008 when he was locked in a tight primary election battle with then-New York Sen. Hillary Clinton." CNN has dubbed Kokomo "The Town the Stimulus Saved."

Of course, the president visiting automobile plants isn't anything new. On one day in July he visited both a Grand Cherokee plant and the Chevrolet Volt plant. He followed that up five days later with a tour of the Ford Explorer plant in Chicago (which meant he probably got to see it before the rest of us did on Facebook).

Here's a bit of automotive trivia you may not have known – Obama is a Chrysler guy. He used to own a 2000 Grand Cherokee that an enterprising Illinois tried to sell while he was running for election in August 2008. Then in January 2009, somebody else tried to sell Obama's 2004 Chrysler 300 for a million bucks.