The best way for the bail out to fail is for it to not happen. Given the current political climate, it’s unlikely it will. Detroit might be a symbolic, local failure, but there are dozens just like it ready to metastasize if Uncle Sam gets involved. Even a lot of liberals understand that this is an existential threat.
Bailing out Detroit as a one off might be politically feasible. Bailing out Detroit as the harbinger of a wave of nationwide city (and state) bankruptcies? It would collapse the U.S. economy as fast as the USSR imploded.
And Barack ‘Present’ Obama isn’t the guy who’s going to lead either charge. He’s going to do nothing, which, by default, is a choice to let Detroit go under. But doing nothing is more defensible than being the guy who was last seen starting an avalanche.
The only thing conservatives can do is hold the line, and let reality take it’s grim toll on Detroit. Only pain can teach a fool. Further compassion is merely denying the fool his education.
Further compassion would be what they call in the drug rehab business, "enabling". No, it is imperative that conservatives (ie., working, taxpaying, traditional American familes) scream to the rooftops against one more tax dollar getting flushed down that toilet known as "Detroit". In the business community that would be what they call, "throwing good money after bad".