Obama to Announce Manufacturing Innovation Institute in North Carolina

Why is the government involved in this at all?

Highlighting the growing manufacturing sector of the U.S. economy, President Barack Obama is proposing new ways for the government and the private sector to help keep those jobs coming.

The White House said Obama will announce Wednesday in Raleigh that a consortium of 18 business and six universities, led by North Carolina State University, has been chosen to lead a manufacturing innovation institute to develop next-generation power electronics. It's the first of three such hubs that Obama called for in his State of the Union address last year.

Battered by the calamitous rollout of the federal health insurance website and the lowest job approval ratings of his presidency, Obama has sought to stay focused on the unsteady economic recovery and jobs and position himself as a champion of working-class people and the jobless.