Obama micro-managing car companies

[brianvh]

It's been so quiet around here without Tad I just have to stir up something.

Is anyone else bothered at how Obama is dictating details like who gets to head GM? Reminds me of Johnson picking bombing targets in Vietnam.

[Joe Schad]

Firing the CEO does not appear to be micromanagement to me. Rather a message that different leadership and a real "new direction" for the company is in order. There are few if any CEOs these days that consider the long term stability and quality of their companies more important than short term profits and stock options for themselves.

Joe

[deveil]

brian(you-ignorant-slut)
yah mahn, least he coulda dun was stuck with precedent - hand picking everyone in the justice department to the dolts running the civilian side of the show in iraq to etc. etc. and not nun a that pickin stuff based on merit neether. stick wit them loyalty religious questions.
jheesh.
you'd a thunk you'd a thunk about all this stuff afore you go decidin' what the decider oughta be decidin. next thing ya know you'll go knockin him for pruning the rose garden stead goin off and wackin off some brush.
jheesh.

garyD

oh yeah. . . (almost furrgott)

[brianvh]

I just think a president should be focused on country-wide policy rather than telling one specific company what to do.

And yeah Gary, I agree there should definitely be an abortion/vegan/tree-hugger litmus test for all CEOs throughout this great land. Damn country needs whippin' into shape.

[deveil]

brian,
how 'bout this - 'things' got pounded so far in one direction that the new guy is going to have to pound it pretty hard in the other direction just to get somewhere back towards the 'middle'.
and just to add a bit of a jab (never can resist) - might your expressed concern about this specific action of the pres be itself construed as micromanagement? sure, it was obviously meant as a particular that represents a broader philosophy but. . . have you been taken over by the new york city, masters-of-the-universe, mind set?
'still haven't got past the first 'hundred days' yet, have we? personally i'm just going to sit back and chill for a while.

"I just think a president should be focused on country-wide policy .. ."
i think the man is actually. he's sayin' "gotch your alls attention now didn't i . welll, there be a new sheriff in town an this how we gonna be doin things from here on out". shoulds kicked some of those 'masters-of-the-universes' out on their arses also, but i think his hands were tied on that a bit soes he's kickin in the next door he come to. never lose sight of the fact that the man came up, out and through 'chicago politics'.

garyD

as i was considerate enough to not allow your question to just 'hang out there' - would you kindly post something additional (doesn't matter what) so i don't have to see My name sitting down there on the index page forever(!)

[deveil]

which is just another way of saying the same things that joe said.

garyD

[brianvh]

Jes don't want nobody calling my boy Barack a socialist. Maybe things had gone so far the wrong direction he's got pound them back towards the left just to reach center, but if we come out of this and he's still pounding hard to the left it won't look good.

A sensible centrist is what people voted for. I'm hoping that's the way he'll swing.

[dbodner]

I cringed when I first heard it. (Cringe is what we do when our guy does something; condemn is what we do when the other guy does something.)

It was a shot across the bow, a desperate attention getter. We'll see if it worked.

[huddlec]

Don't have to worry about replacing the CEO as 'socialism' unless you are willing to go back and call Bush I and Bush II socialists for their similar actions:
http://mediamatters.org/items/200903310027?f=s_search
(In case you're not familiar with media matters, it was formed by an ex-conservative who is its CEO.)
Christy

[brianvh]

If its a conservatorship, it's okay to replace management because you've already said outright the guvmint be running things.

I didn't know the AIG head was forced out, but as Bodner pointed out, that wasn't my guy. I'm less sensitive when somebody I already consider to be a dickhead does something I don't agree with.

[davidtheamazing1]

Companies "Too big to fail" are companies that are too big. The government should have stepped in long ago and broken up the "big three".

[mcelrah]

Yup, that's socialism...but...what's the downside?

I just had my annual physical at my HMO - no co-pay. Socialism!

Sallie went to the Bolling AFB commissary last week - no sales tax 'cause I am a decorated veteran - more socialism!

I receive a monthly pension for 30 years of federal service - socialism again!

The guvmint taxes each and every one of us and gives a buncha money to NIH so that Janni can cure cancer - socialism, socialism and more socialism!

NASA and NOAA use federal tax dollars to put weather satellites up in space and then gives the pictures away! God-DAMNed socialism!

During your terminal illness, the god-damned socialist govmint uses tax dollars to pay for your treatment if you have exhausted your assets instead of leaving you in the gutter to die of cancer without morphine like it had oughta. Moral hazard - ya shudda saved more money!

Public libraries - socialism! Free public education - SOCIALISM! The 8-hour workday and the weekend - socialism!!! Country's going to the dogs... - Hugh