Ford CEO’s Bush joke misfires

Ford Motor Co. Chief Executive Alan Mulally is no longer laughing about his suggestion that he saved President Bush’s life during a recent White House visit.

The No. 2 U.S. automaker has apologized after Mulally said his claim of intervening to prevent Bush from plugging an electrical cord into the hydrogen tank of an experimental Ford vehicle had been meant as a joke.

Ford said Mulally never expected the story he told journalists in New York last week would be taken seriously.

The CEO found himself in an embarrassing situation when the story was featured on blogs and even in mainstream media such as the Financial Times, which said “he may have saved the incumbent of the Oval Office from blowing himself up.”

Recounting the meeting at the White House on March 28, Mulally said he noticed the president appeared ready to plug the power cord into the wrong outlet of a rechargeable vehicle that also runs on hydrogen.

“I violated all protocols. I grabbed his arm and I moved him up to the front,” Mulally told reporters last Wednesday.

“I wanted to make sure he plugged into the electricity, not into the hydrogen,” he said to roars of laughter from the media, before adding: “This is all off the record, right?”

Ford said Mulally’s anecdote had been inspired by a video spoof featured on ABC-TV’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” talk show that suggested Bush blew himself up by plugging the cord into the wrong outlet.

“I tried to tell a joke about it and proved I am no Jimmy Kimmel,” Mulally said in a statement. Ford spokesman Tom Hoyt said Mulally thought Kimmel’s joke was funny and showed it to several Ford officials before his remarks to reporters.

“He just meant it as a joke. He kind of embellished the whole thing,” Hoyt said. “There was no danger whatsoever.”