Bracing for 'Obama Motors'

GM’s bankruptcy and semi-nationalization has everyone talking. Here’s what the papers are saying:

• “Welcome to Obama Motors, and what is likely to be a long, expensive, and unhappy exercise in political car making,” writes the Wall Street Journal. The government seems incapable of hands-off management, and Obama will have to renegotiate the UAW contract in an election year, pitting "Big Labor" against taxpayers. "Who do you think wins that White House debate?"

• The Detroit Free Press laments the fall of the once-mighty automaker, but notes that bankruptcy’s long been inevitable. “It will be painful,” it writes. “But it will offer the company a fresh start.”
• President Obama must tell the public exactly how he intends to run the company, the New York Times opines. “GM cannot be micromanaged from Washington,” the paper argues, but the government can—and should—appoint board members dedicated to restoring profitability and increasing fuel efficiency.