Dewey Defeats Truman Part Two

I guess the Malaysian Sun's stock rose quite a bit, as the news is that The Northrop-Grumman-EADS-Airbus combine got the tanker project we talked about down below, against all expectations.

It's quite a season for underdogs this year.

Congratulations are in order. I think we all sincerely hope that the Mobile, Alabama plant will be more than the Potemkin Village I suspicion it to be.

Maybe Airbus will find that being in the dollar zone in the country that invented commercial aviation and knows more about it than anyone else is a nice place to be. And I hope that our colleagues in Europe will see their way through to buying American-it's good business, we've got good products, and the price is right.

The folks at EADS have been given a huge vote of confidence by some of the toughest and most persnickety people in the world. That says something-although they have yet to meet AFPRO and NAVPRO inspectors, which should prove interesting and informative.

The hard facts are, we wouldn't be having this discussion if there was any competition from a domestic builder, which points to the damned foolishness of letting Douglas go down the chute. It seems our military doesn't like monopolies any more than any one else.

Deconstruction has its drawbacks, and Boeing didn't help things any. This one was theirs to win and they blew it.

Here at the Dougloid Towers, all we've got to say to Jean and Luc and all the other rivet bashers and tank rats in Toulouse is, "Come on in. The water's fine, and there's great barbecue down the road."