Allan Mulally has already lived a very successful life, having helped save American icon Boeing, then taking over the reigns as Ford Motor Company's Chief Executive Officer. Now he has added 'the guy that saved President Bush' to the list. Mr. Mulally used his media audience at the New York Auto Show to tell a pretty great story about his recent trip to the White House.
Ford Motor wanted to give President Bush a first-hand look at their hydrogen electric plug-in hybrid, so the company arranged to have a demonstration of the uber-tech Ford Edge right from the White House lawn. When walking with the President towards the vehicle, Mulally noticed that the extension cord was placed to the rear of the car, where the Hydrogen fuel tank resides, instead of the side of the car. As Mulally saw the President approach the rear of the car, he decided that he should physically grab the president and "make sure he plugged into the electricity, not into the hydrogen."
We obviously don't know for sure whether or not the leader of the free world would have stuck an electrified cord into the Edge's Darwin-hole, but we do think it was a damn good idea Mulally stepped in to make sure Mr. Bush did the right thing. We don't think Ford's green initiative would have been able to recover if the company's best and brightest technology fried the President. Then again, given the approval numbers of Mr. Bush... we kid, we kid.
This is what Alan Mulally said.
“I just thought, ‘Oh my goodness!’ So, I started walking faster, and the President walked faster and he got to the cord before I did. I violated all the protocols. I touched the President. I grabbed his arm and I moved him up to the front,” Mulally said. “I wanted the president to make sure he plugged into the electricity, not into the hydrogen This is all off the record, right?”
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