Obama Sopranos Wagoner Out Of GM-Good Move Or It Doesn't Matter?

001 - I do not think out government should be making these decisions. However, Wagoner has not really done a good job. From that perspective a change will be good. I just do not like our govt making the change

Wagoner has done more for GM than past leaders, however he is still stuck in the slow moving machine that got GM in the trouble it is currently in, and as such his leadership is held back by GM itself.

-00J

I think many understand that his job is hard.
Everyone can be smart, but not everyone can be as successful as Bill Gates.

Wagoner hasn't been doing a good enough of a job, and that's why Obama (and many other people) would like him to step down ...even if it's just for the moment.

Obama should be tried for tyranny. he is just a community organizer. there are tools for corporations to restructure, Chapter 11 been done many times and works well. Obama is disscusting

Are People really this stupid? To think that socialism is the answer.

This administration is out of control. Look at the disinformation campaign that's being run on us. The huge stink about the AIG bonuses while they quietly push a budget through the house that will cripple us and our children for the next 20 years. By god, they left the loophole in the stimulus bill that allowed AIG to give these people bonuses and then they want to cry about it afterwards. Yeah, it's really irritating to the american people, but I'm not mad at AIG, I'm mad at the idiots in office that allowed it to happen.

Speaking of budget, how can our administration justify the budget they've planned. We are going through such an economic downturn and he wants to add universal healthcare onto us? Give me a break, that would be great if our economy was doing pretty well and we could make it work financially or even cut back to make it work. But when nearly 9% of our population is out of work and times are getting worse doesn't seem to be a great time to push more taxation onto people and small business. In fact its about as smart as making fun of handicapped people on national television. BTW, the man has yet to apologize to the people that he actually made fun of( just to the Pres. of Special Olympics). But, did you really expect more from a man that ran on the race card and catered to naive college students to get elected.

Having Rick Wagoner step down is just the beginning people, they say they want to write law into effect which allows the administration to take majority control of a corporation. Be careful people, this is the same way the patriot act got written in. They take advantage of an emergency situation, loosely write the bill, and then spit all over our constitution. We made it through the great depression w/o socialism, we can make it now.

I'll tell you someting I won't be buying a car built by the UAW.

Sorry mate, the naive college kids are probably exponentially more inteligent than you are and can see that the current way of doing things is too stupid.

There is no way that any healthcare costs will be equal to or greater than the Criminal Waste that the Bush Admin allowed under the subheading of Defense Spending and said healthcare coverage will free up same auto manufacturers so they can be competitive.

Buick is a winner and Saturn is a loser.

Get your facts straight and turn it around.

Don't forget any Saturn vehicles that are imported can be moved to another company such as Pontiac or Buick.

Can't wait to read what kind of package he got to leave...He's laughing all the way to the bank.

001

C'mon 001, we all know all this mess is because of 1UAW surfing AutoSpies in his worktime. I heard he once forgot to put the engine into a car, so much he enjoyed the site. Now has Ricky to make excuses to Mr. B

HyundaiSmoke,

I usually dont dislike your comments, so don't take it personally... BUT

Everyone knew SUVs were going down as the sales King, but GM had nothing to do with the price of Gas, and as far as Im concerned, they were right to sell as many high profit vehicles as possibe.

Getting rid of Saturn sucks, I agree, but it was almost always a loss maker. GM made Saturn into a beautiful brand and America's response was "screw it, we got toyota". As for Buick, I disagree, with Buick's new direction I support the decision to keep buick. The Enclave & 2010 Lacrosse are just the beginning of what Buick could be (soft, high-quality, everyday luxury).

The Cobalt is a much better vehicle than the old "GM-legacy (ie crap)" cavalier. Great mileage, low costs (price, insurance, fuel, maintenance), and SIMPLE (what the segment really wants).

I also agree with you with regards to the Cruze... should have been out a few months ago.

I kind of agree with you about the saturn thing and I have no idea what there numbers where the last few years, but I do know that it's the one GM division that has never turned a profit, so there in might lay your answer. IDK.

Everyday, the line separating Barack Obama and Hugo Chavez blurs. What's next, the Obama Administration giving themselves the authority to also take control of businesses that don't ask for bailout money as well? Oh wait, they're already working on that one.

Fritz Henderson is the "interim" CEO (according to reports), so let me guess. Come a year from now:

CEO: Nanci Pelosi
CFO: Henry Waxman
COO: Diana Feinstein

Come 2 years from now.... either GM won't exist or the govt will force everyone to buy crap-box electric cars made by DM (democrat motors)

Wrong,

You can in no way compare Chavez to Obama. Chavez seized and nationalized businesses. Obama asked for the resignation of a CEO whose leadership put his company in a position where they could not continue to exist without gov't funds. Wagoner has made his share of bad decisions, the shareholders should have sent him packing years ago.

stone,

You obviously don't know what GM was in 2000 and what it is today.

I don't even dislike Chavez, but lets be honest, socializing businesses that are, by their nature capitalistic, is bad for all parties involved.

Nationalizing energy mining might be good in the short-term, but in the long-term governments never are good at investing in technology & efficiency. Special interests get involved and that never is good...

That mole Hugo Chavez will turn Venezuela into Vietnam.

Poverty with no healthcare.

"What's wrong with Hugo Chavez?" The naivete implicit in your question shocking. Through his seizure of private enterprise he has effectively chased out almost all outside investment in Venezuela and with it the capital and jobs that come with it. He has tossed out Venezuela's constitution, made himself dictator and silenced any opposition. Anyone capable of critical thought or aware of 19th century history should understand why Hugo Chavez is highly detrimental to the people of Venezuela. Just look at the horrors Chavez's hero, Fidel Castro, has inflicted on the people of Cuba. People don't risk their lives crossing the open ocean on inner tubes without good reason.

You have obviously not been to Caracus Venezuela recently. I go yearly to visit family. Chavez is responsible for one of the highest inflation rates in South America. Basic food stocks are in short supply. The poor are no better off at all and without the aid of the courts and the military he's already be gone. Capital is leaving Venezuela at an alarming rate. The Bolivar is worthless on the street at black market exchange rates. Obama is going to hijack our constitution just like Chavez hijacked the Venezuela constitution and the courts. Go live in Cuba you communist.

Hmm, those complaining about Obama making decisions about who should run GM should not forget where the bailout money is coming from. I don't have a problem with it considering how many bad decisions GM has made over the decades.

If the government should not have a say in it then the corporations should not expect any bailout money. Giving them government bailout money is a form socializing business too. I think they should not have been given any money. Let them fail.

only except for the fact that the government is the LAST entity that should be running a business.

The government could run a company that made drinking straws (at a profit at least). They've started uesless wars, spent like drunken sailors, and are soldiers of irrational special interests (lets face it, either the religious-right, or the "environmentalist-left", theyre all insane).

You really want the people who brought this depression on us to run our companies that have faltered as a result of the economic downturn?

I would hate to see the new Camaro pushed back or not made, but I agree. Let them fail dammit. The fact of the matter, is that we are going to keep on having to bail them out for a long time, until the economy comes back. Go ahead, do GM, Chrysler, and the public a favor. Let them fail and restructure. They can renegotiate their contracts and perhaps be able to turn a profit once again.

If you can't do that, then give the american people the car mfg. bailout money in the form of tax rebates spent towards a vehicle. We choose which american made vehicle we want, so the companies with the most viable vehicles will survive and we will actually get something out of the tax dollars we pay. Sales will stimulate the economy more than throwing money at the makers, and if an automaker still can't survive because their products aren't competitive enough in the above situation, then let them fail.

Why don't you just apply for citizenship in a socialist country and save your ridiculous talk. They'd probably be glad to get you and we'd be glad to lose you. It's a win-win situation.

"Total nationalization"? Are you kidding?! I don't mean to be insulting, but it really is hard to believe that in the year 2009 there are still people ignorant enough to believe in communism given it's abject failure everywhere it's been tried and the poverty and human tragedy left in its wake. Clearly schools are failing to teach children the important lessons of history and economics.

Oh it will, i won't bet against it....

Wagoner should have told basketball boy to go to hell!

Basketball boy?

001

I'll tell you what. If the economy hasn't turned around in one year then 0bama can resign and forecast the NCAA for Las Vegas.

How about that?

"I personally however, wished he was able to put Rev Wright in a cabinet position. Rev Wright is a visionary genius that would have contributed greatly to policy." LIke most trolls, you couldn't help yourself and took your absurdity too far, revealing yourself to be nothing more than a prankster. Though I have to admit, I'm relieved that you're not actually serious in your comments regarding socialism, Hugo Chavez, etc. You do far less harm as an internet troll than a voting citizen.

What's racist?

Have you ever looked up who invented basketball?

I'll help, look up Dr. James Naismith on Google and click on images.

I don't know if you know this, but 0bama is infatuated with March Madness in the middel os two wars and an economy that has been falling apart since he's been in office.

The stock market has taken huge losses since he's been in office and he should resign ASAP!!!

the stock market was around 8000 when Obama took office and it's around 8000 now. stop your right wing lunatic whinning you little facist baby.

HyundaiSmoke, your great bama is an idiot.

I guess you don't remember when obama made fun of people in the Special Olympics on Leno? bama is insensitive to others and people are gettin' tired of lookin' at is teeth and that perpetual grin and can't get rid of!

When is this idjit obama scheduled to be on letterman and winfrey?

I'll tell you one thing and that is bama doesn't know jack about the auto industry.

obama has done more with the war on terror and the economy in 2 months than the previous clown-in office did in 8 years.

but you rigth wing lunatic fringe morons always pick some non issue to cry about like "oooo he filled out a NCAA bracket ooooo"

hahaha stupid right wing lunatics.

Bush spent like 2000 days of his presidency resting at the ranch. but you don't have a problem with that.

DinamoR,

Your great socialist is an idiot that knows nothing about being a Senator let alone President.

The military will follow his war mongering orders, but they despise him!

Cindy Sheehan is already protesting the war monger obama.

bama is a one term President!

DinamoR-

You just wait in about one year after bama prints all that phoney money that's backed by nothing and interest rates go sky high lke during the peanuts Carter Presidency?

We'll talk about the stock market then!

EL34- The stock market would have fallen no matter who was in office.

009, remember, this is EL34 you're writing to. He's only here to give us a laugh, but like other fanboys here we're laughing at him, not with him.

Neutral, Wagoner made many good moves during his term and thats where GM is right now in terms of products and manufacturing. But in terms of finance, he put too much emphasis on stock price to keep shareholders happy. In the end, he's just digging a deeper hole for GM by not "moving with the times" and adapting to changing markets fast enough. Upon knowing what Toyota pays for labor, why did he not follow or at least try to move in the same direction years ago? That would have made GM more competitive labor-wise.

What the auto industry needs is a leader (auto czar) who can make things happen and do what needs to be done no matter what. We all have our ideas on what needs to be done but we as industry observers, can't do much about it.

Its just that the auto industry is a b*tch of an industry. It's slow, money intensive and Im sure you well know all the other aspects of the industry that make it a tough place.

Wagoner was fired for political reasons, but Im really not too upset. Now all the "gotta fire the CEO" whiners have nothing to complain about.

hell yeah it's a great move. finally one of these clowns steps down.

and since the gov. bailed these clowns out, they have the right to say who stays and who goes. that kinda comes along with giving billions of dollars to a company

Yea, call them clowns but if you were to run GM, there'd be a global depression once you unveiled your "electric only" plan. but then again, chances are you'd be buddy-buddy with the dems so then you could have Pelosi write a law that says everyone has to buy a GM vehicle regardless if they like it or not.

HyundaiSmoke,

Let me tell you what Republicans are going to do. They're not going to buy cars built by the UAW in the next 4 years.

It's you Libs that will buy UAW built cars of want the UAW to survive :-D

Same with the military. All Republicans out of the military and the next terrorist attack that may be the Golden Gate and Oakland Bay bridges you Libs can join up and go fight :-D

It would be great of bama starts the draft, afater all tax cheat Charley Rangle has already been talking about the draft.

There's nothing worse than a Lib that wants to raise taxes and they don't pay their own taxes.

Oh no! no repubs in the military?

republicans have never won a war against another country anyway. we libs won WWI and WWII. We took care of Korea and got a peace deal in Bosnia and north Ireland in the 1990's.

besides, republicans are the biggest cowards in the country. whaa whaa bin laden scares us so much we feel safe only if we torture people whaa whaa let's spend a trillion on a stupid war because we're so scared whaa whaaa

no repubs in the military? sounds great to me!

DinamoR,

You are an idiot.

HyundaiSmoke, you need to move to Cuba or NK and live that good life!

Cuba and North Korea build some of the best cars in the world.

I think you need to move to north korea

they love torture just like you. hate the rule of law: constitution, geneva convention just like you. they are nationalist militarist lunatics who spend 20% of their GDP while people have nothing to eat. you'll love that also. they hate gays and san francisco and freedom and they call everyone who opposes them a terrorist fascist communist, just like you.

Move there. you'll love it. leave the free world for us, normal people.

HyundaiSmoke-

Oh yes you are. You're a Lib that should go to San Francisco and get married by Mayor Newsom.

You'e an Obamanation supporter and bama wants to tear Capitalist a new one to fund his Socialist agenda.

How about all the Lib rock stars and athletes pay double taxes since they're over paid to begin with?

ROFL

EL34- just another lunatic glenn beck watching 1950's homophobe torture loving fascist loser.

We had capitalism until you morons took over and started destroying the middle class. since them we've had authoritarian capitalism, which is not much different from communism, in a way that it DOES NOT WORK.

DinamoR-

I've been thinking the way I think before I ever her CNN, Fox on TV or Limbaugh on the radio.

In fact, I vote President Peanut out of office and voted President Reagan into office when I was in the military.

Obama... Not the angel everyone thought he was?

Whether you like him or not, I think most of us can agree Obama is very intelligent.

This is a shrewd move to set an example of if you are going to take federal aide then you better be ready to make some sacrifices. Bonuses and possible some key people that made the mistakes. It simply is accountability, for accepting desperate measures.

Obama is the kind of person that will rip you off, and you will still leave his office smiling thinking you got exactly what you wanted. That is intelligent :) And that's what's happening right now.

huu, I might be on crack here, but I totally agree with your statements about president "Jesus". lol.

You know-Talk of structured bankruptsy has gone on for so long that I do not think that the public will freek out if this happens anymore. I support the US auto industry but it has to be very inefficent,especially GM. I think that's the fundamental problem and I think that's why the Obama administration asked Rick Wagoner to leave. Before this financial downturn last fall GM fought off the Kirkorkian bid and partnering up with Nissan/Renult. Wagoneer was adamntely against this and was able to convince the GM board.In hindsight this merger might have helped GM stave off this current crisis. But this unwillingness by GM to radically restructure left them vunarable to failure in this financial downturn. Playing hardball with the unions should have happened 3 or 4 yrs ago.I'm not saying that Wagoner did not make good changes.He did. But they have come way too slowly to stopped the loss of market share. Chrysler was essentially gutted by Daimler Benz so anyone who takes the helm is not going to be able to do much. It will be interesting to see if Fiat(Sergio Marchionne) will be able to convince the auto task force to continue to loan money to Chrysler. Fiat has 30 days to do it.Saying all this I do think there seems to be a double standard. The government is dictating to the auto companies to restructure but not the banks. Why is this?

EL34 the blowhard; He always seems to bring in some non-automative discussion by talking about something not even related to the topic. He forgets his buddy G.W. Bush had his "Mission Accomplished" banner plastered up on a ship when we weren't even close to winning any war. Your buddy GW Bush took a surplus and pushed all of us to the brink of a depression. You fool, I'm not saying I like 'bama but quit barking about crap Bushy Jr created. And since you know just as little about cars of any kind, I'd stick with your hot wheels.

Wow, I finally agree with GKearns56. Although we can't blame Bush for all of our troubles, still you're absolutely correct.

Actually-I think Ford was smart enough that they may survive this downturn.Further I would think their brand may become more popular now with less competition.

Every bone on me hates Obama and his socialist thugs. Rather than be a man and tell the UAW workers who voted for him that he can't help them, he'd rather send GM and Chrysler into bankruptcy and no take the blame for anything. So much for the President who will look out for the average worker. What a loser!!!

"...he'd rather send GM and Chrysler into bankruptcy and no take the blame for anything."

It's not Obama's fault that GM and Chrysler make cars people don't want to buy. Both companies are costing the government ENOUGH money... and the solution isn't getting any better. GM and Chrysler just need to pay the price for what they did in the past... and if that price means bankruptcy, then so be it.

I'm no Rick Wagoner fan, but I believe it's a dangerous precedent having the president of the United States asking/ordering a CEO of a company to step down--no matter how much money you're lending them. Moreover, honestly, it's not only a "condemnation" of Rick Wagoner, but when done in the form of a veiled threat (if Wagoner doesn't go away there won't be any loans forthcoming) by a president who's past--and I believe present--ideology is, shall we say, not pro-business, it should be pretty sobering to all business leaders in the US.
I hope the auto industry is buckled up for the upcoming ride with Obama's administration.

Brilliant move. Now all we need to do is kick out the other top 20% in GM and bring in some new blood who can re-make the company into one that can at least write a credible recovery plan.

I'll tell you someting I won't be buying a car built by the UAW.

— EL34
Hey where do you work.. I want to make sure I don't buy from your company.. this is the problem with this freakin country. NO pride in what we make and knock everyone who does something you think is under you. I don't work for the big three but in my thoughts lets tax the crap out of every company thats not American. We need as Americans start praising our fellow country men for the jobs they do. After all we all work here and if you say we make crap or do crappy work then your knocking your own job. We need to say we are the best in world and then set about doing it.. Not just going the unions are to blame. By you saying that is really you saying I don't know what the problem is but thats sounds good mean while you hop into your imported car. If this country is to get better we need to start standing up and saying we need American companys to build here. We need American companys to stay here and we need American people to respect those people that work for our companys. Until then I say your the problem with this country. You buy what ever you want and never think how it effects our nation. You say our work manship is bad and our companys suck. Well I say hey if you work here you must be doing the same lame ass job that everyone else is so shut up already. Tried of everyone pointing the finger at this or that group and saying they are to blame. And the guy on the line thinks he does a good job just like you think you do a good job.. who is right, I would say both of you are. but you will disagree. People its time to demand production back into the country by American companys and make it so they can't move the jobs over seas.. And everyone can say what they want to me about this. because if we don't start doing this our country is going to fall farther than it has and then who will save us.. Not Japan Not Germany but maybe China will...
So go ahead and buy those imports and knock American business. Just maybe next in line is your job being cut

I won't be attending any garage sales raising money for Mr. Wagoner, but I missed the part in our Constitution that gives a President hire/fire responsibilities for private industry. Especially considering the great O's non-existent business experience, except as a "community activist" and novice attorney who pressured banks to lend more money to uncreditworthy borrowers as an Acorn employee. Yes, I'm afraid this will be a very long storm...