Detroit — Now that Barack Obama has distanced himself from Rev. Jeremiah Wright, his supporters are relieved that Obama can move on to important issues, like his prescriptions for America’s economy.

And you thought Wright’s sermons were offensive.

In his Sunday interview with Tim Russert on Meet the Press, Obama betrayed a breathtaking combination of ignorance, arrogance, and hypocrisy when it came to the U.S. auto economy. Obama told Russert:

The problem is that we have not been serious about (fuel consumption) and Detroit ended up making investments in SUVs and large trucks because that’s where they perceived a competitive advantage and that’s where they felt they could make the most profit. I think it was a mistake for them not to plan earlier. Now we’re seeing a huge growth in fuel-efficient cars that is benefiting the Japanese automakers, and Detroit is getting pounded some more. China already has higher fuel efficiency standards than we do. If we want to compete for those markets, then we’re going to have to invest in technology. The government can help, but the automakers have to make some changes.

Obama is shocked that American companies try to gain “competitive advantage” or pursue “profit” — that dirty word. For someone who claims that “that’s the kind of truth telling we need from the next president,” he has a very loose handle on auto-industry reality.

Detroit makes big, powerful vehicles because their customers want them. Including Obama himself, by the way, who had a 340-horsepower Chrysler 300C Hemi V-8 in his garage when he first dressed down the auto industry last May for making gas-guzzlers like the Chrysler 300C Hemi. The Detroit Free Press caught him in this hypocrisy, and he quickly bought a politically correct Ford Escape Hybrid to save face. Not that he ever drives it, of course: as a candidate, Obama’s daily ride is a Secret Service–provided, 14-mpg Chevy Suburban, the biggest SUV made.

The Japanese also know that Americans want big cars and trucks. Toyota didn’t become America’s second-bestselling automaker by selling Corollas alone. It also sells a full line of SUVs — like the Sequoia, the Landcruiser, and the Highlander – which is why Toyota joined the Big 3 in protesting Congress’ new mpg-edict last year.

It could easily get worse for Detroit. Big cars and trucks weren’t the vehicles that made the “most profit” — they were the only vehicles that made a profit, period. Before last year’s transformative, cost-cutting UAW contract, labor costs for the Big 3 were $1,300 more per vehicle than their foreign competition — or about the profit margin for a small car. Yet, a search of Obama’s speeches over the past year finds not a single reference to uncompetitive union wages.

Worse still, while trolling for local UAW chapter endorsements in primary states, Obama has pandered to labor by encouraging strikes against the new 2007 contract. “I stand with the 73,000 UAW workers who are striking General Motors,” he said last fall. “The demands the union is fighting for are things that all workers should expect and that the UAW members deserve.” The contract, say the Detroit automakers, will finally make it affordable to build smaller cars by reducing their labor cost gap to $100 per car.

The UAW’s strikes have spread this spring — emboldened by Democrats like Obama who say the contract terms are unfair and that NAFTA is to blame for lost union jobs. Ironically, they now are shutting down production of Chevy’s popular new Malibu, which has been the fourth-best selling sedan (after three Japanese vehicles) since gas prices topped $3 a gallon. Yet, the same candidate who demands Detroit make small cars would deny them the labor tools to achieve that goal.

This is truth-telling?

It is true that the Japanese have been ahead of the U.S. in small-car technology. In part, this is because those cars delivered a return on their investment — thanks to high Japanese fuel taxes that artificially raise gas prices to double that of the U.S. If Obama honestly wanted to encourage smaller cars, he would propose a $3-per-gallon gas tax here, forcing prices to Japanese and European levels. But he doesn’t, because that would be political suicide.

Truth-telling?

Not surprisingly, Big Government Obama praises Communist China for its “higher” fuel economy edict. But so what? China’s auto sales increased 500 percent over the last decade to a mere 7 million vehicles (“If we want to compete for those markets?” Someone tell Obama that GM already controls 20 percent of China’s market). By 2020, Chinese auto sales are estimated to grow another 300 percent to 20 million. Obama and his fellow senators just passed a 40-percent increase in U.S fuel-economy standards by 2020. This edict will cost the struggling U.S. industry $85 billion and (see those China growth percentages) make no difference in global emissions.

A pity Obama doesn’t find that truth worth telling.

– Henry Payne is a writer and editorial cartoonist for the Detroit News.