I‘m in the Windy City today to blog the 100th Chicago Auto Show at McCormick place. The weather is frigid, and we’re expecting about a foot of snow later today. The kickoff is a breakfast address by Troy Clarke, President of General Motors North America. Clarke’s address picks up on the ‘Super Tuesday’ theme. He says that when it comes to cars, the American people vote with their dollars. He says that GM (and all other automakers) must make cars that people want to buy — not the ones that they’d like to sell. The automakers can’t just mass produce the most fuel-efficient car in the market and force them on consumers (which seems to be what many in Washington would like). Rather, they need to respond to challenges like energy security and global warming while giving drivers what they want. Clarke relates the tale of a focus group in Los Angeles in which the participants expressed a strong desire for a ‘green vehicle.’ When the facilitators teased out what they wanted more precisely, the general consensus was for a Chevy Tahoe that gets 45 miles to the gallon.