Twice this year President Obama has traveled to Elkhart County, Ind., to promote his economic policies, first to the city of Elkhart on February 9 and then the nearby community of Wakarusa on August 5. Northeastern Indiana makes for a good backdrop for speeches on the economy since Elkhart County has 16 percent unemployment, worst in the state.

The region has been especially hard hit because it’s the nation’s center of travel trailer manufacturing, with several major companies doing business there. High fuel prices followed by tight credit and then the recession have just hammered the industry.

With all due respect for the President’s policies, the area just got excellent news on the economic front last week from the U.S. court system. On September 24, a jury in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana, rejected the first of at least 30 lawsuits against trailer manufacturers who sold their products to FEMA in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

From The Associated Press:

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal jury on Thursday rejected a New Orleans family’s claims that the government-issued trailer they lived in after Hurricane Katrina was defective and exposed them to dangerous [formaldehyde] fumes.

The jury decided that a trailer made by Gulf Stream Coach Inc. and occupied after the 2005 hurricane by Alana Alexander and her son, Christopher Cooper, 12, was not “unreasonably dangerous” in its construction.

The jury also concluded that Fluor Enterprises, which had a contract to install trailers for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, was not negligent in doing so. The government was not a defendant in this first of several “bellwether” trials.

Last year the House Oversight and Investigations Committee, then chaired by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), held a hearing to drag the trailer manufacturers into the mud for supposedly dangerous manufacturing practices — charges the manufacturers have always forcefully rejected. The hearing built upon already one-sided media coverage that also served the interests of the trial lawyers suing the businesses.

This is just one jury verdict, but the message must be very, very encouraging to the people of Elkhart County, and especially those involved in the trailer industry: The companies built safe products that met consumers’ demand, and when responding to the Katrina disaster, they maintained their high standards.

Now that would be a good topic for a nationally televised speech.

Note: The RV trade industry publication/website “RV Business” did a thorough job covering the trial, and kudos to them.

• “Jury Clears Gulf Stream Coach in FEMA Trailer Case” (Sept. 25)
• “Federal Jury Deliberating Gulf Stream Coach Fate” (Sept. 24)
• “FEMA Suspected Sierra Club Bias in Gulf Stream Matter” (Sept. 23)
• “Gulf Stream Coach Inc. Trial Ends First Week” (Sept. 21)
• “Witness: Welding Fumes Caused FEMA Trailer Illness”(Sept. 17)
• “Lawyers Present Cases in First Day of FEMA Trial” (Sept. 15)
• “First Trial on FEMA Trailer Suit Starts Today” (Sept. 14)

President Obama’s February 9th trip to Elkhart, Indiana, was an early and high-profile part of the White House’s push for passage of the stimulus bill. Northeastern Indiana is the center of the recreational trailer industry, and the local economy had been rocked by high gas prices, the credit crisis, and collapsed consumer demand.

At the time, the stimulus bill was being promoted with an emphasis on infrastructure, and the phrase “shovel-ready projects” was in wide use. In the President’s February remarks to the Elkhart townhall-style meeting, this was the relevant passage:

Now, you may have heard some of the critics of our plan say it would create mostly government jobs.  That is not true.  Ninety percent — more than 90 percent of the jobs created under this recovery act will be in the private sector; more than 90 percent.  (Applause.)  But it’s not just the jobs that will benefit Indiana and the rest of America.  It’s the work people will be doing — rebuilding our roads, our bridges, our dams, our levees; roads like US 31 here in Indiana — (applause) — that Hoosiers can count on — that connects small towns and rural communities to opportunities for economic growth.  And I know that a new overpass downtown would make a big difference for businesses and families right here in Elkhart.  (Applause.)

President Obama spoke yesterday in Wakarusa, just south of Elkhart, at the Monaco Coach operations. It seems like transportation infrastructure has been demoted as a topic by the White House, but in fact, the President did mention it Wednesday. The comparable passage:

The last third of the Recovery Act — and that’s what we’re going to talk about here today — is for investments that are not only putting people back to work in the short term, but laying a new foundation for growth and prosperity in the long run.  These are the jobs of building the future of America:  upgrading our roads and our bridges; renovating schools and hospitals.  The Elkhart area has seen the benefits:  Dozens were employed to resurface the runway at Elkhart Airport; a four-mile stretch of highway is being upgraded on US-33; the Heart City Health Center has received recovery dollars to expand services and hire additional staff.

He used the word “infrastructure” twice: “This is about creating the infrastructure of innovation,” when referring to the battery grants, and, “[The] recovery plan began the process of reform by modernizing our health care infrastructure.”