Archive for December 4th, 2008

Here’s the deal…the Big Three are at it again. They’ve come back to the Hill, hats in hand, to try and con Congress into giving them a space at the bailout trough. So what’s changed since they were turned away and told to go back home and come up with a workable turnaround plan?

Marketing.

Yep. Ford’s chair drove all the way from Detroit to D.C. in an Escape Hybrid. Wow. There’s a PR move, if ever I’ve seen one. ‘Course, it would have been ever so much more effective if he’d done it a couple of weeks ago, instead of flying in with his corporate jet. “I just drove in from Detroit, and boy is my butt sore,” makes ever so much better a punchline than “I just flew in from Detroit, and boy is my stewardess tired.” Oh, and the Big Three CEOs have offered to take $1 a year for a salary! (No word on stock options and other incentives.) And they’ll give up the corporate jets! (Now we’re talkin’ pain!)

It’s interesting to see the Big Three get hip to appearances, and start doing something to make it at least look as if they’re trying to be contrite. Pity they didn’t come up with anything more than smoke and mirrors for a plan. Read the rest of this entry »