Detroit — Barack Obama presents himself as the candidate of “change” – a new breed of politician who, he says, will speak truth to “a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests.”

Yet, in a Wednesday visit here outlining his plan for America’s auto industry to better compete against the Japanese, Obama revealed a stale package of warmed-over proposals heavy on the usual subsidies for industry special interests.

In the nineties, Bill Clinton created the $1.5 billion Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV) to help Detroit (“Big Auto,” to use the special-interest designation) produce an affordable, emissions-free, family sedan capable of 80 mpg by the end of the decade. In a 2001 review of the failed program, the National Research Council judged PNGV’s goals to be inherently “unrealistic.”

PNGV, meet CDTVCF.

On Wednesday, Obama proposed to spend “$10 billion a year in creating a Clean Technologies Deployment Venture Capital Fund (CTDVCF)” that “will accelerate the development and deployment of cutting-edge vehicle technologies” to “help American companies build batteries for plug-in hybrid vehicles.”

Sound familiar?

And Obama didn’t stop there. He also proposed more sweetheart deals for Big Auto (or “domestic automakers” in Obama non-special-interest-speak) – like millions for the “Advanced Manufacturing Fund that will invest in innovation and job creation.” And more funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, a federal program for Big Businesses (er, “manufacturers”) that want to improve efficiency and technologies.

Of course, if he were really The Change Candidate, he would stop the federal gravy train and increase federal gas taxes to $2 a gallon (as in Japan, pushing gas to $6 a gallon) in order to guarantee a market for the “fuel-efficient cars of the future.”

But that might alienate certain special interests.