Several thoughts.
1. Why would anyone with the common sense God gave gravel think that a board consisting of political appointees–none of whom as named to date have any auto experience–will bring anything useful to the table? They don’t know jack about the industry and none has experience as a turn around investor. (OTOH, they can’t do all that much worse than the current management of the Big Three.)
2. An oversight committee comprised of 6 cabinet level officers has way too many chiefs and no indians. Who’s going to be in charge?
Hey, look how well political management of industry is working for Cuba and North Korea. I’m sure, given the expertise we have in Washington, we’ll be as prosperous as those nations in no time.
Hey, not to worry, we taxpayers are going to pay for it.
Or just think, the last time we had a brand new administration bringing the best and the brightest to bear on a problem, it was the Kennedy administration bringing us Vietnam. I can’t wait to see what a bunch of Harvard types can do for the economy…
I remember MacNamara with fondness.
Friends, I have to say that until we stop just discussing and complaining and start taking action the liberal juggernaut is going to just continue rolling on. We had the opportunity last month to vote out some of the yes voters on the 700 billion bailout and didn’t. No price was paid for a yes vote. . If we had done so, this bailout out and spending frenzy might not have gotten off the ground. So please, lets take action. Lets tell our representatives (Senate & House) in no uncertain terms that votes for further bailouts and New New Deal spending will lose them our vote and if they do so anyway, then vote against them when they next run.
Christopher Dodd, Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, calls for the resignation of Rick Waggoner because of mismanagement. There’s the pot calling the kettle black. Honestly, how Dodd shows his face in public without one sign of shame is a remarkable testament to the human capacity for denial. Dodd is perhaps the only person on the face of the earth who can make an auto executive look like a sympathetic character.
But, what a minute, ToH – Dodd is a member of “the most ethical Congress ever” – I know because Nancy Pelosi told me so!
Now, now…let’s remember that the first US ‘advisors’ sent to Viet Nam were sent there by Pres. EISENHOWER.
And let’s remember that Kennedy and Johnson turned it into an American war.
[i] The last time we had a brand new administration bringing the best and the brightest to bear on a problem, it was the Kennedy administration bringing us Vietnam [/i]
Nonsense. It was the likes of Rumsfeld (Princeton), Wolfowitz (Cornell), and Douglas Feith (Harvard) getting us into the Iraq War as part of their grand scheme to remake the Middle East—a scheme they developed before 9/11.
I would guess that I am certainly one of the 10 most right wing commentators on this site. (a few of you even frighten me :)) The nation cannot afford to let the auto industry die! It is too critical. a few observations:
1) One can rightly assume that the government will make a hash of the bailout;
2) Rick Waggoneer has actually done a good job in my humble opinion of turning GM around – the real villian is Chairman Smith of the ’80s. Waggoneer was cutting surplus capacity, had wrangled substantial concessions from the UAW, and most importantly had taken control of automotive design from the bean counters and to car guys – the Cadillac CTS, the GMC Acadia/buick Enclave, and the Aura/Malibu – are testaments to an automotive renaissance at GM – unfortuneately the credit crunch and gas crisis has swamped it ( I think the Cadillac CTS is nearly the equivalent of a BMW 5 series for 3 Series cost).
3) A collapse of the big three would destroy not only the big three but their suppliers and dealer networks – every small town in America has Big Three dealers – they are some of the larger employers in many such Towns and the better ones are pillars of the community;
4) I do not think we can remain a superpower and not have a manufacturing base;
5) Too much of the blame for the mess is the governments (therefore collectively ours) fault – social engineering in credit markets, bad trade agreements/policy steming from the Cold War era as two examples.
Despite my fear of socialism and especially the incomming administration – I am more afraid of the alternative – look at the UK and what happened to its auto industry. I think we are going to have to grin and bear it.