Last May, Candidate Barack Obama spoke at Cobo Center to the Detroit Economic Club. His speech took aim at auto executives for delaying progress toward fuel efficiency –- remarks that were met with a luke-warm smattering of applause and criticism in the press.

For the first time since the fateful remarks, Obama returns to Michigan to campaign. His visit includes a tour of a stamping plant in Sterling Heights and a town-hall meeting at Macomb Community College. The audience will be workers invited to talk about economic issues.

The scuttlebutt in the press about the visit is that Obama faces an up-hill battle in the state following his May of 2007 remarks. Personally, I hope he doesn’t pull his punches. The attitude against Obama for his remarks smacks of shooting the messenger. The message may be one we don’t want to hear, but the sooner we acknowledge the need to develop better fuel-efficiency and alternate-fuel technologies, the sooner we can move forward. After all, according to the Detroit Free Press, all of the candidates support stricter fuel-efficiency standards. The difference may be that Senator Obama isn’t candy-coating his stance to woo Detroiters.