My, how long ago it was

You know, for a candidate who ran in part on a message that America was seen as too arrogant to most of the world, I can't help but chuckle at the HUGE disconnect between those concerns and the visual takeaways from Cash 4 Clunkers.

I'm here to tell you as a somewhat privileged traveler of this world for the last 2 decades: the vast majority of cars that are going to be rendered unuseable by this program would be serious upgrades to the roads in just about every country in South America, good chunks of Europe, all of Africa, and to the developing countries in Asia. In fact, about the only place that could PHYSICALLY handle the dimensions of a typical American car that will not look quizzically at the senseless destruction of these vehicles is the capital centers of the Middle East.

Ironic, that.