Ford, which turned down the opportunity to be government owned like its competitors GM and Chrysler, has posted a surprise profit for the third quarter:

DETROIT — The Ford Motor Company on Monday posted a surprise third-quarter profit of $997 million and said it had its first profitable quarter in North America in more than four years.

For all of 2009, Ford, the only Detroit automaker to avoid bankruptcy this year, has had a profit of more than $1.8 billion. It reported $834 million of income in the first half of the year.

Is this because of some vastly superior product that is suddenly coming off their assembly lines - or is it because people have gravitated to the Ford brand because Ford didn’t take the bailout?

If in fact the answer is “B”, (as I suspect it is) then a strong message is being conveyed here by the American public. They believe in the free market and are suspicious and even resentful of government intervention and control and, lacking a voice that is heard on the Hill, will vote with their wallets when given the opportunity.

Good for Ford.

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