Obama Sells His Economic Record by Talking up Plant He Tried to Close

President Obama wants desperately to be able to take credit for economic recovery...even when his administration arguably stood in the way.

The Washington Examiner reports that the President recently delivered a speech praising the productivity of Boeing's manufacturing plants:

"This company is a great example of what American manufacturing can do in a way that nobody else in the world can do it," Obama told the assembled workers this afternoon at the Everett, Wash., Boeing plant.  "And the impact of your success, as I said, goes far beyond the walls of this plant.  Every Dreamliner that rolls off the assembly line here in Everett supports thousands of jobs in different industries all across the country.  Parts of the fuselage are manufactured in South Carolina and Kansas," Obama noted before mentioning factories in other states.

The problem? His administration tried to close one of the most productive of those plants over conflict with unions. Specifically, when Boeing decided to relocate some of its manufacturing plants to South Carolina - a right-to-work state, unlike Washington state - the unions sued in front of Obama's National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in retaliation. The NLRB sided with the unions, even though the workers themselves had voted to kick them out of their plant. From RedState:

Having posted extensively on the Machinists’ union smokescreen at Boeing, there is some sense of satisfaction in knowing that Boeing’s union-free employees in South Carolina are not letting the union get away with retaliating against them for choosing to be union-free.

Indeed, were it not for the fact that the once-unionized Boeing employees in South Carolina kicked the Machinists union out of their workplace, the union would likely never have filed a charge against Boeing for locating the 787 work in South Carolina.

Some may argue that the NRLB's decision to sue the plant wasn't directly the fault of the White House. Yet news outlets have openly suggested that, far from being too detached from the NRLB, the White House may have too much influence.

Nor is this the first time the Obama administration has clashed with the airplane industry. Boeing manufactures one of the most expensive and desired private jets on the market - yet the Obama administration has publicly taken the position that ownership of private jets should be taxed.