In 1936, Winston Churchill, speaking about the reluctance of Great Britain and other Western European countries to understand changing geopolitical realities and fully recognize the threat posed by Nazism, said, "So they [governments] go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent."

Those words have an eerie resonance when it comes to the Obama (and Bush to some extent) administration's handling of the automakers.   Appeasement and refusal to acknowledge the obvious have placed the industry and taxpayer in much greater peril. 

As this blog has stated on numerous occasions, including in posts dated 11/12/2008, 11/18/2008, 12/5/2008, 12/8/2008, 12/12/2008, 12/21/2008, 2/16/2009, and 2/17/2009, clear-thinking non-ideologues know that the best path to a vital Big Three is a pre-packaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy; whereby, debt, labor, supplier, and dealership contracts would be prudently restructured.

On 2/17/2009 this blog commented, "There's nary a coherent thinker around who doesn't recognize that the automakers require a pre-packaged Chapter 11 in order to shed their unwieldy obligations and become viable for the long term.  Instead, in the name of dogma, we throw billions and billions of dollars at the Detroit Three only to have them repeatedly come back to the government trough because they can't or won't affect necessary structural changes.  So, we wasted critical time and tens of billions of dollars, all because the obvious has been the enemy of the ideological."

Here we stand five months later, still irresolute, still clinging to ideology, still hoping against hope that the running faucet of government cash infusions will stem the tide and miraculously enable us to avoid the hard, but necessary work of true reform.  Today, President Obama announced yet another 60 day window for GM (and 30 days for Chrysler) to get its act together.  How laughable.  It's no secret that this only delays the inevitable, as it has done several times before, and increases the cost of, and pain associated with, doing what's necessary.

Today, Obama finally mentioned the previously taboo "B" word—bankruptcy.  Yep, the spin machine is shifting into overdrive in order to mitigate the damage of another failed policy.  The verbal gymnastics are classic Obama as he attempts to position himself out in front of something that has run him over repeatedly for months.

Here's what he said, "Now, while Chrysler and GM are very different companies with very different paths forward, both need a fresh start to implement the restructuring plan they develop.  That may mean using our bankruptcy code as a mechanism to help them restructure quickly and emerge stronger.  Now, I want everybody to be clear about this.  I know that when people hear the word "bankruptcy" it can be unsettling, so let me explain exactly what I mean.  What I'm talking about is using our existing legal structure as a tool that, with the backing of the U.S. government, can make it easier for General Motors and Chrysler to quickly clear away old debts that are weighing them down so that they can get back on their feet and onto a path to success; a tool that we can use, even as workers staying on the job building cars that are being sold."

Just beautiful.  When he says, "when people hear the word 'bankruptcy' it can be unsettling," isn't he talking about his own administration and the Democrats in Congress who consistently and disingenuously portrayed bankruptcy to mean a liquidation with concomitant massive job losses and catastrophic economic implications, rather than a healthy and orderly restructuring with little/no business disruption, in order to fool the public (which hasn't worked) and curry favor with organized labor?  Interesting that he now tries to clear a path for a course of action (that was right all along) he and his minions dismissed as foolhardy over and over again.

Another 60 days and billions of additional dollars to be wasted...all because the President lacks the political will to stand up to his constituent groups, primarily organized labor, and do the right thing.  The sad irony is that labor would have been much better off if the restructuring was completed months ago.  Instead, the auto industry is weaker than ever and less able to employ the very workers to whom Obama unflinchingly panders.

Ultimately, Obama, will reach the end of the line and be forced to pluck his head from the sand and do what was obvious all along—just as Great Britain, facing the growing storm clouds of Nazism, did in the 1930's.  Unfortunately, like in Europe much opportunity will have been wasted in the interim.

Let's hope there will be an automotive recovery "in our time."