Barack Obama celebrated his economic policies before 700 Ford employees Wednesday by congratulating himself for bailing out the auto industry in 2009. “There is no doubt thanks to the steps we took early on to rescue our economy,” the president said. “America is coming back. The facts are the facts.” But Investor’s Business Daily had some inconvenient facts Obama overlooked. The company that got America on the road with the Model T didn’t take the government’s handout, though it still took a loan to comply with the government’s onerous regulations telling it what kind of cars to make. The bailout was a carrot to entice the auto industry to agree to average fuel economy standards of 54.5 miles per gallon – a standard IBD says that can only be met if automakers turn to hybrid, electric and compact cars. IBD writes, “The problem is that consumers have never been very interested in these kinds of cars, which is evidenced by the fact the plant will be idle when Obama visits. Slumping sales of the Focus and C-Max Hybrid models caused the plant to stop production for three weeks.” Obama took a victory lap on his economic policies when behind him, an idle auto plant blasted his arguments. More…