New York Times — Obama’s Test: Restoring G.M. With a Limited U.S. Role
Writer David Sanger provides a smart analysis of the political box in which the president finds himself having taken over busted General Motors with tax dollars. While members of Congress are already putting pressure on the company for favors, the White House is trying for the Goldilocks approach to running the company – not so much that they’ll be politically liable for unpopular or unwise decisions but not so little that critics can accuse them of neglecting a $50 billion investment.
What comes through in Sanger’s piece is that Obama and his team were rather untroubled by the notion of nationalizing one of the nation’s principle industrial firms. Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel gave a verbal shrug saying they knew it was “a big deal” but that they had worked out all the problems, so why worry?
