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By now, it's pretty universally known that Willard's first prescription for what ailed the Big 3 (soon to be the Big 2.5) -- to tell the automakers to either get private financing or simply go bankrupt was the product of a rightwing fantasy. His own Bain Capital took a flyer, and the kind of financing that helped Ford avoid national embarrassment was unavailable for Chrysler and GM because Wall Street was in the process of imploding due to its own vast and deep corruptions. Perhaps no single sentence demonstrates the leadership void that Willard represents than "Let Detroit go bankrupt." It's not a matter of simply geting it wrong. It's a matter that it was so widely known within the circles Willard runs in during the bridge loan period that it's simply beyond credulty that he was unaware that private interests could rescue Detroit. That is, a man with considerable experience in capital markets, rather than leveling with voters as to the realities on the ground, instead chose political pandering to that select demagraphic of people who exist in an alternate reality. We otherwise call them the Republican base or -- alternately -- the Tea Party. So, when we hang that headline around his neck like a rotten albatross, let's make sure we're clear on its meaning. Willard probably didn't want Detroit to go bankrupt, and certainly didn't for the purely ideological reasons the people he's pandering to wanted. Certainly he understood what would happen without a federally-backed managed bankruptcy to not only the Big 3, but the auto parts makers and even the foreign companies with plants in the United Statets. Instead, it's a lot more credible to believe that he simply ignored what his experience and the people he runs with were saying and instead of leveling with people and offering credible leadership instead did what Willard does best ... say whatever he thought necessary to win votes by pandering to ignorance. |
