Quote of the day
Hot Air » Top Picks — ... “If General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye .” Blowback Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our ...

Don’tcha Wish Romney Had Been the Nominee?
Anwyn's Notes in the Margin — Tough love for Detroit from one of its sons. First, their huge disadvantage in costs relative to foreign brands must be eliminated. … That extra burden is estimated to be more than $2,000 per car. Think what that means: Ford, for example, needs to cut $2,000 worth of features and quality out of its Taurus to compete with Toyota’s Avalon. Of course the Avalon feels like a better product — it has $2,000 more put into it. Considering this disadvantage, Detroit has done a remarkable job of designing and engineering its cars. But if this cost penalty persists, any bailout will only ...

...or maybe the companies just stink?
Sound Politics — ... (which go much beyond just wages & benefits for current workers) that are fruit of the UAW and the less than innovate leadership of management, the domestic auto industry just isn't very good. Disparate voices agree, from Mitt Romney to ...

What might have been
Brilliant at Breakfast — ... But Mitt Romney, of all people, has a largely sensible op-ed about the automobile industry in today's New York Times that if John McCain is reading it, ought to make him misty-eyed at what might have been, had he been able to put his own animosity aside and not listened to the Rovian wingnuts who decided that Sarah Palin would win him the election. ...

Larwyn's Link Kerplosion: If GM, Ford and Chrysler get bailed out...
Doug Ross @ Journal — ... • Mitt Romney, writing in the New York Times : Let Detroit Go Bankrupt : "IF General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye." • American Digest : ...

Mitt Romney: "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt."
Althouse — A NYT op-ed: Without that bailout, Detroit will need to drastically restructure itself. With it, the automakers will stay the course — the suicidal course of declining market shares, insurmountable labor and retiree burdens, technology atrophy, product inferiority and never-ending job losses. ...

Morning Show Summary
The Page by Mark Halperin - TIME.com — ... On MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Mitt Romney and Carly Fiorina both said a bailout of the auto industry is a bad idea. Romney said bankruptcy would protect the Big Three while they restructure for the future and urged executives to forgo hefty salaries and perks. Romney NY Times op-ed: "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt."       ...

Hugh Hewitt: President-elect Obama's Baseline and Silence
Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog — When Barack Obama was elected: The inflation rate was 3.7% Unemployment was 6.5% The prime was at 4% The Dow closed at 9,625 The NASDAQ closed at 1,780 The S&P closed at 1,005 Oil was $60 a barrel. These were the facts as polls closed on 11/4. His domestic success or failure should be measured against them. The two weeks since his election have featured exactly one Obama press conference even as the country's economic worries continue. His party's rush to craft a bail-out for GM, Ford and Chrylser has magnified concerns that any Democratic Party constituency --in this case the UAW-- with a want will get Congressional action whether or not it makes ...

Random Commuter Thought
The LLama Butchers — ... exactly Uncle should even be considering bailing out Detroit. Let the Big Three go belly-up! Bankruptcy is a nifty tool for clearing debt, renegotiating ruinous labor contracts and giving a company room to try and come up with a coherent business model. I'll probably get disinvited from Christmas with the in-laws for saying so, but it seems to me that all this talk of massive cash infusions into the industry is ridiculous: better to take the beast round back and shoot it. UPDATE: Mitt! has the right idea: IF General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief ...

Romney: Let Automakers Go Bankrupt
The Hill's Blog Briefing Room — Romney: Let Automakers Go Bankrupt Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) said lawmakers should not give troubled U.S. automakers a bailout, and should let the companies slip into managed bankruptcy. "A managed bankruptcy may be the only path to the fundamental restructuring the industry needs," said Romney, whose father, George Romney, was onetime head of American Motors and a governor of Michigan. "It would permit the companies to shed excess labor, pension and real estate costs" In a New York Times op-ed , Romney said the federal government should provide a backstop for warranties and the auto companies' financing as they would emerge from ...

Romney: Let Detroit Go Bankrupt
Hotline On Call Part Deux — ... Mitt Romney, writing in the New York Times today, urges against the auto industry bailout. Bankruptcy, he argues, will allow the industry to rebuild for the future. ...

Let Them Sink
Daily Pundit — Op-Ed Contributor - Let Detroit Go Bankrupt - NYTimes.com IF General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won’t go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed. This is a point that isn’t being made often enough, and in this case, the politician making the point is far more knowledgable about the entire situation than any of the bailout barons screeching for a rescue of the UAW. Romney literally grew up ...

Blame the Jets
Balloon Juice — Mitt Romney, from his “Let them eat cake” editorial about the big three: The need for collaboration will mean accepting sanity in salaries and perks. At American Motors, my dad cut his pay and that of his executive team, he bought stock in the company, and he went out to factories to talk to workers directly. Get rid of the planes, the executive dining rooms — all the symbols that breed resentment among the hundreds of thousands who will also be sacrificing to keep the companies afloat. ABC ...

Denial
The Corner — ... ] I called Boehner "majority leader." Next I'll just start referring to the dude with the N.Y. Times op-ed on the auto bailout today as President Romney . ...

Let Detroit Go Bankrupt
Power Line — ... That's the title of Mitt Romney's op-ed in today's New York Times. Romney's reasoning closely parallels what we've laid out here: ...

Romney: Let Detroit go bankrupt
Hot Air » Top Picks — ... Or, if you prefer the way Democrats will be spinning this, “Romney to Detroit: Drop Dead.” You’ve read the op-ed , now see the video. Should an unprofitable, uncompetitive industry be forced to restructure or should the feds dump a few billion more into the ...

Failure is an option
Newshoggers.com — By Ron Beasley There is a lot of talk about saving the US auto makers.  The question not too many are asking is if there is really anything to save.  Yes, there are the jobs but realistically many if not most of those are going to go away anyway.  GM especially needs to make less cars and quit making most of the vehicles they make ...

Jeffrey Feldman: Mitt Romney's Ye-Olde-Times Plan For Detroit
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com — In a Op-Ed piece in today's New York Times, Mitt Romney boldly invites Americans to view the auto industry through the economic lens of 1954.  As a foray into the troubled waters of the biggest industry crisis of our time, Romney's plan epitomizes how Republicans think about the economy:  by pretending we live in a Dickensian version of the Eisenhower era. When transported back in time to that imaginary Republican past, the actual challenges of 2008 vanish (poof! all gone)--challenges like renewable energy, resource stewardship, sustainable building, healthy communities.  Also gone are the opportunities those challenges ...

A Worldwide Contraction Featuring Concerts In Romania And A Republican Drive To Sell GM To China
DownWithTyranny! — ... There seems to be a global contraction in the economy and it goes way beyond concert tickets. This morning vulture capitalist Mitt Romney pushed GOP talking points in an OpEd in the NY Times urging Congress to let the entire U.S. automative industry go bankrupt. Romney was once a top executive in one of the worst predator investment firms to ever stalk American Business, Bain Capital. They would buy up distressed firms for pennies on the dollar, fire the employees, slash budgets, sell off assets, suck whatever life was left in the company and leave a smoldering ruin. ...

Mitt Romney: Let Detroit Go Bankrupt
Say Anything — ... The former governor of Massachusetts and erstwhile Presidential candidate says that Detroit needs a turnaround, not a check. ...

Mitt Romney...Don't Bail Out The Automakers
Ace of Spades HQ — Mitt Romney...Don't Bail Out The Automakers I know all about Mitt's conservative heresies and they prevented me from fully supporting him in the primaries (though I leaned towards him at the time) but he makes a rather good case for not throwing tax payer money at a failed domestic auto industry (sorry, it's in the NY Times). First, their huge disadvantage in costs relative to foreign brands must be eliminated. That means new labor agreements to align pay and benefits to match those of workers at competitors like BMW, Honda, Nissan and Toyota. Furthermore, retiree benefits ...

Right Wing Using Bailout Crisis To Push Anti-Union Attitudes -- Their 2008 Hot-Button Issue?
BuzzFlash.org - Progressive News and Commentary with an Attitude | Fight Ignorance: Read BuzzFlash — ... Wednesday morning, and in his New York Times Op-Ed entitled "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt,"* but many others have chimed in, too. A regular chorus of indignation is aimed at middle class assembly line workers and retirees. A letter posted at ...

Mitt to Detroit: Drop Dead!
Ace of Spades HQ — ... His op-ed in the NYT was good, too: I have several prescriptions for Detroit’s automakers. First, their huge disadvantage in costs relative to foreign brands must be eliminated. That means new labor agreements to align pay and benefits to match those of workers at competitors like BMW, Honda, Nissan and Toyota. Furthermore, retiree benefits must be reduced so that the total burden per auto for domestic makers is not higher than that of foreign producers. That extra burden is estimated to be more than $2,000 per car. Think what that means: Ford, for example, needs to cut ...

Shorter Mitt: Let the Auto Retirees Starve!!!
Firedoglake — Boy. Mitt Romney let loose one festival of stupid on the NYT op-ed page today. He writes an entire op-ed making prescriptions for the auto industry. But in the whole op-ed, there are just two suggestions that aren't already being implemented: The first suggestion? Find some way to renege on the pension promises the auto companies have made to retirees: ...

Shorter Mitt: Let the Auto Retirees Starve!!!
The Latest on Air America — Boy. Mitt Romney let loose one festival of stupid on the NYT op-ed page today. He writes an entire op-ed making prescriptions for the auto industry. But in the whole op-ed, there are just two suggestions that aren't already being implemented: The first suggestion? Find some way to renege on the pension promises the auto companies have made to retirees: Furthermore, retiree benefits must be reduced so that the total burden per auto for domestic makers is not higher than that of foreign producers. Unlike that recommendation, his second recommendation is very ...

Bailout hypocrisy: Detroit's jets
TigerHawk — ... bail out these mismanaged companies if they are led by people who do not understand the first thing about leadership? You cannot credibly demand sacrifices from your workers, suppliers, and dealers -- much less the taxpayers -- when your rump is nestled in the comfort of a private jet. In this one gesture, these guys are proving that they are -- at best -- managers . They are certainly not leaders, which is what the automobile industry so desperately needs right now. MORE: I channel Mitt Romney! Well, he wrote it first, but I had not seen his ...

TO SAVE THE AMERICAN AUTO INDUSTRY, let Detroit go bankrupt. Meanwhile, Katie Granju thinks that …
Instapundit — TO SAVE THE AMERICAN AUTO INDUSTRY, let Detroit go bankrupt. Meanwhile, Katie Granju thinks that such talk is union-busting in disguise.

Unions are the problem with the auto industry -- Mitt Romney
LiberalOasis : The Blog — ... Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney has written an op-ed in the New York Times about the auto industry. Gov. Romney is uniquely qualified to comment on the industry, not only because of his knowledge of the business but also because his father was the president of American Motors. So, I was expecting something that was thoughtful and insightful. Unfortunately, this article was the same old Republican talking points. It could've been written by Newt Gingrich or Rush Limbaugh. ...

Viking Pundit — Wednesday, November 19, 2008 The national dinosaur - Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney advocates tough love for U.S. automakers: " Let Detroit go bankrupt ." Update - Everybody in Washington is ...

The Day the Big Three Lost Their Bailout
Weekly Standard Blog — ... so far as to look up coinciding flights on Expedia, from Detroit to Dulles. There were 12 of them, starting at about $200. The last Rasmussen poll showed more than 40 percent opposed an auto bailout, with 70 percent worried the government would run out of money if it kept traveling this road. Now that the jet story has reached "Fey effect" levels of pop-culture exposure, it may very well keep Congress from rewarding the Big Three's jet-setting paupers with our money. I'm with Mitt. Let 'em go.

Moore: Govt Should 'Hold Reins' on Automakers
The Hill's Blog Briefing Room — ... hold the reigns on these companies. And they are to build mass transit. They're to build hybrid cars. They're to build cars that use little or no gasoline… We need to restructure these auto companies so they become mass transit companies and companies that build cars that are hybrid or much more fuel-efficient and better for the environment. That's what the country needs. That's what the world needs. Moore adamantly agreed with some Republicans, including former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R), who have accused Detroit of making building cars that fail to appeal to ...

The Sunday Morning Talk Shows: The Review
RedState: Conservative News and Community — ... Granholm pointed out that Romney had back away from the "let them go bankrupt" line he gave to the New York Times last week, but she spent the interview trying to link Romney to what he wrote for the NYT last week. Romney outsmarted her, catching her off guard by flipping at the last minute. ...

The New Look of Union Busting
Balloon Juice — ... The second reason you can expect them to say no is even easier to figure out- this is union busting on a grand scale. There have been dozens of signs over the past week what they really want, starting with the Mitt Romney editiorial in the NY Times: ...

Right wing promotes Mitt ‘the jobs aren’t coming back’ Romney for ‘car czar.’
Think Progress — ... it out of a sense of obligation and duty. The Romney endorsement is a minor step up from Fred Barnes’ nomination of Phil “mental recession” Gramm. During the presidential primary campaign, Romney said he’d be “ashamed” to tell the people of Michigan their jobs are coming back. “These people know that a lot of these jobs aren’t coming back,” he added. In a recent New York Times op-ed, Romney declared: “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.” ...

Think Mitt Romney Might Be Running for President?
Politics Daily — ... Submitting angry editorials to national newspapers Tom Tancredo. We'll let you guess whether it was Romney or Tancredo who went off in the Washington Times about mandating the ...

2012 Watch: Is Romney the GOP frontrunner?
The Hill's Blog Briefing Room — ... John McCain last fall. And his political action committee is seeding money to candidates across the country. Johnson also wisely notes that the "dearth of a clear leader among Republicans, as well as Romney's work as a turnaround artist, have put him in the top tier of potential 2012 GOP candidates." President Obama's plan for the auto industry, rolled out in the last couple days, has provided Romney another avenue to re-enter the national dialogue. On Tuesday, Romney, who has long argued for letting the auto industry go bankrupt , praised Obama's plan in an ...