BHO As CEO

Dick Morris opines that BHO's forcing out of GM's Rick Wagoner will backfire.

Excerpt from this column at The Hill:

...By replacing the head of the company and demanding a restructuring of its board in return for further TARP aid, Obama has taken upon himself the responsibility for the future of the company....

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This move will backfire big time! The auto giant is very, very unlikely to be saved by this current TARP infusion. Doubtless it will need more in the near term. But the resentment now focused on the management of the company will then turn to Obama. Having demanded a replacement of the management, it is he who will be held responsible for the company’s future.

And each time GM asks for more money, Obama will face a choice: take personal responsibility for laying off 100,000 auto workers or anteing up the additional cash. By inserting himself so deeply into the management of the company, Obama makes himself central to its future. If Obama lets the company fail, having already extended credit, he will have all of Michigan on his case. If he keeps coming up with more and more tax money, he will earn the contempt of the voters.

Socialism has its price. By taking over the management of a company, you become the determinant of its fate in the public’s mind.

Obama does not seem to realize that government takeover is the beginning, not the end, of the problem. He should have stuck with being president and left making cars to others.

Read the rest HERE.

Statist that he is, BHO successfully demonized GM's corporate management. Continuing the socialistic power grab, he continues to demonize in moralistic tones all sorts of corporate managers and, thereby, presents himself as "The One" who can save us peons from evil management. In his runaway bestseller Liberty and Tyranny, Mark R. Levin explains that kind of maneuver in some detail in Chapter One.

The purpose of this post, however, is not to discuss the same issues as those discussed by Mark Levin in his book, although I recommend that all of my readers obtain their own copy and wade in. Instead, my purpose here, as one who comes from a long line of automotive mechanics, is to ask a few questions about BHO as CEO....

1. Is BHO, or anyone he chooses to manage GM, an experienced CEO?

2. What does the new CEO of GM know about the auto industry?

3. Did BHO's forcing out of Mr. Wagoner amount to extortion?

I know that my analogy below isn't perfect. Nonetheless, BHO's move to push out Mr. Wagoner reminds me of the machinations of the efficiency expert:

A specialist who seeks to increase the productivity of a business or an industry by improving the efficiency of its operations.

Any mechanic can tell us just how efficient such experts are. The mechanic's comments are unprintable in polite company.

Maybe Mr. Wagoner needed to go. I don't know. But will whoever takes his place be any better?

Meanwhile, we also have BHO trying to force Chrysler to team up with Fiat, which, in the past anyway, used to be referred to by mechanics as Fix It Again Tony:

...[M]any auto experts think the proposed alliance between financially healthy Fiat and nearly dead Chrysler can work, when the Daimler-Chrysler linkup is considered to have failed. Fiat, it is argued, builds excellent small and midsize cars - exactly where Chrysler is weakest....

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[E]ven the most optimistic experts aren't sure whether Fiat and Chrysler will be a marriage made in heaven - or, like the Daimler and Chrysler tie-up - one made in purgatory....

One can only, pardon the expression, hope that Fiat has improved over the unreliable vehicle is used to be, when even auto salesmen advised buyers, "If you love your wife, don't buy her a Fiat."

In spite of being vilified by various media, Ford Motor Company may have shown great wisdom in refusing bailout money. By refusing federal funds, Ford has disallowed federal control of the company's management. In any case, those of us who rely upon our cars for transportation to and from work are going to find out exactly which makes and models keep us moving on down the road. Perhaps so as to cover our bases, all of us should invest in towing companies. Heh.