“Seems to be it was Ford that Survived the Obama-depression unscathed.”
It was not that Ford “came out” better from the recession that began after the 2008 financial crisis, it entered the recession in a better position than GM or Chrysler - in a position, fiancially, that helped it when the recession came; whereas GM and Chrysler’s profits and balance sheet were worse than Ford before and heading into 2008.
Too much praise in all this is NOT due Ford. Had they failed as much as GM and Chrysler to improve their profits and their balance sheet, heading into 2008, I don’t believe their executives would have been any less than GM or Chrysler to seek some kind of help from the government. They may have some executives that have served them better but I do not think they are any less crony-capitalist than any other major U.S. corporation, when desire or necessity makes rhem so inclined.
But the reason it went into the recession in better shape was because management made the tough decisions a few years before, and so got ahead of the competitive curve. Frankly, I think it is more praiseworthy that they avoided the problems of the other automakers with smart management rather than simply surviving better after the fact.