"Pot, Meet Kettle!"

Flag,when it was announced in Detroit these 2 companies were going to D.C. for a handout,I KNEW it was over for them. They believed Bush would just shovel a bunch their way,and be business as usual.What with Bush kicking the can down the road,these guys apparently thought Obama would treat them the same way.Bad mistake.I have met Mr.Wagoner at auto-related functions in the past,he is a good man,who made some bad decisions,not entirely his. The board is EQUALLY as culpable.THEY should NEVER approved of going to the gov't.If nothing else,this should be a WARNING to any firms who think the gov't is there to help.It will be quite interesting to see who gets bumped up to replace Wagoner. Bet the farm it won't be a "car guy".

Just a thought here,watch at some point down the road for Obama to turn control of GM over to the UAW. It'll be "put up or shut-up" time for them then.They ALWAYS think they can do better. The UAW isn't even successful at growing their namesake union,how the hell they think they can grow an auto company?

Also.... what about the fact that Obambi's usurping the power reserved to the board of the company, and its stockholders, to make these decisions on who gets to be an executive?

Of course, this was to be expected, as many of us wrote on our blogs and in our comments on various threads. This was inevitable.

Which is one of the big reasons why this whole idea of "bailouts" was so abhorrent in the first place. This all should have been addressed in the proper venue: bankruptcy court.

Got a new one up myself!

After singing along to the Bush catastrophe song and dumping multiple billions down the rat hole, now King Barack announces that it may be time for GM to go into...wait for it, wait fot it...Yep, you guessed it...BANKRUPTCY COURT!!!!!

After swearing that any mention of bankruptcy would bring on an economic collapse, now they tell us that bankruptcy reorganization may be the best way to go with GM and possibly Chrysler. This is turning out to be the most duplicitous administration in American history.

The guy is nuts, and he has the backing of Congress. And the public is either in cahoots philosophically or too stupid to get it so right now he has some cover. That cover will be lost, but he has it now.

What amazes me is how quickly he is doing all this stuff and how quickly he has raised spending so much.

That didn't take long. Fritz Henderson,the CFO,takes both of Wagoner's posts,CEO,and Board chair.GREAT bean counter,LOUSY car guy.Get your Z-1 Corvettes while you can. The C-8 is toast.So is ANYTHING they had worth a s#!t coming in the pipe. Just talked to a friend who is still hauling some concept stuff,they figure with kicking to the curb of Wagoner,all bets are off. A return to the Vega,anyone? Rumor has it,FWIW,the Camaro slated for this year may not go as planned. Be a HUGE waste of money,since it is ALREADY in pre-production.

VaDad: The bad part is that by the time he loses his cover, it will be too late. If he gets a lot of his agenda through Congress, we are going to be screwed for generations to come. As for his spending increases, it's easy to do when you are able to take a bad situation, convince everyone that it is a major crisis that threatens the country's economic survival, and convince enough people that government spending is the way out of the manufactured crisis state.

clyde: Is it any wonder that Obama replaced the car guy with the bean counter, since he has no one on his auto advisory panel that has a clue how the industry works? This is all an attempt to put GM in the business of amking cars no one wants to buy, but that the President believes will save the planet. This ain't about business, tis about politics my good man!

Politics,no question about it.GM had the bean counters running things in the early 1980's. Brought us some GREAT cars,like the Chevy Celebrity,Pontiac 6000,Olds Ciera,ad nauseum. You know,s#!tboxes.Other than the grille,and ID nomenclature,you couldn't tell them apart. It is hard for me to believe the rank and file UAW member can be pleased with this turn of events,but,I suppose as long as they keep THEIR jobs,who cares? They ought to be reading the tea-leaves. Should the REAL CEO of the new G-Obama Motors don't like THEIR contract,he will just wave the magic hand,and POOOFFF! Gone.We shall see how well they like Hope& Change then,eh?

Yeah, that's just hilarious!

Coulda gone BK first, and saved us tens of billions.


But these guys can't pass up the opportunity to let the obvious kick 'em in the arse.

clyde: Yeah, who can forget the classic Chevy Vega? As a matter of fact, I saw one of those a couple of weeks ago and had 2 questions:a) where did they find that car and b) how do you get parts for it? I'm sure NAPA and CarQuest aren't flush with carbs for the classic Vega!

Brian: They don't care about the obvious...they care about power. And the decision on whether GM and Chrysler survive or die being in their politcal hands is the ultimate in power over an entire industry.

True, time is short, but I do retain hope that resistance will be at least enough to buy time.

Could be naive, but nonetheless...

I figured when Bush was giving them money and th deadline in March, he was pushing this to Obama because Obama just might stand up to the unions for cut backs. No real such luck.

I am not saying Mr. W. should have been sent packing, maybe maybe not, but the board should have done it, not the White House.

Also Chrysler bothers me more. Not only with ramming Fiat down their throat, but all of the capital their investors could give them.

And I asked this question before to someone else, were these bailouts or loans with specific pay back dates?

The thing with Chrysler is a great political move by Obama, if you think about it. The deal was already in the works and nearing completion when Obama made his deadline public. If the two sides work the deal out Obama gets to look like a strong leader who gets things done; if the deal falls through, Obama gets to take more control of another manufacturer. He has made this a win-win for himself by taking this particular stance.

Your comment about Bush gave me an idea for a blog, because for someone who called himself the decider, Bush kicked a lot of things down the road.

Of course Obama will get credit for everything good that is happening, even if he did not do a thing.

I see with Chrysler, but it bothers me. They are privately held. They have investors, they just won't put anymore money into it.

It bothers me too, but at this point the die has been cast. The moment they went to the government hat in hand, begging for money to stay alive they opened the door to government control of their companies. They should have done what Ford did; weather the storm on your own and not allow the government to take your company from you. You watch, in the future it will be Ford that is the industry leader, because they will be free to produce the cars consumers want, not what the government wants consumers to want!

comparison here, the Lada (or whatever the name was of the USSR's auto manufacturer) or Volkswagon under Hitler. What's holding me back is I can't remember if Volkswagon was a private company that was nationalized under the Nazis, if it was created by them or if it was a private company that earned their patronage.

I'm thinking that in terms of quality, it's obviously the Lada, but in terms of political philosophy I'm not quite so sure, probably Volkswagon would be the better comparison if it was a nationalization of a private company.