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GM has launched a new ad campaign to try and rebrand the company. No need. MSNBC has ridden to the rescue and is proud to declare Government Motors its new favorite cause. The hard-left cable network had adopted GM, so let the word go forth that if you want to support President Obama, his cheering section at MSNBC has made it clear that means buying GM product.

The Rasmussen poll conducted over the weekend of May 30-31 asked a key question designed to give us perspective on Obama's current popularity. The question was whether the current problems "are due to the recession that began under the Bush administration or to the policies Obama has put in place since taking office." In other words, who's to blame, Bush or Obama?

Today's New York Times features a story about 31 year old Brian Deese. It's called "The 31 Year Old In Charge of Dismantling GM". Deese is not an employee of General Motors. In fact, less than a year ago, he was still in law school at Yale. Now, he's the point man on the bankruptcy of General Motors. How did this happen? Deese, with no experience in the auto industry, became one of the first people chosen to head the President's auto task force.

It was said once that what was good for General Motors was good for America. I would update that aphorism: what is happening to General Motors is happening to America. Some of this is a bitter necessity–but much of it will be very bad, brought on by the voting public’s collective refusal to face the consequences of our nation’s (and our own) increasingly reckless financial behavior over the past three decades.

They say history repeats itself. If you are like me and have lived two lives, you have a good chance of seeing the re-enactment with your own eyes. The current takeover of General Motors by the U.S. government and United Auto Workers makes me think back to Romania's catastrophic mismanagement of the car factories it built jointly with the French companies Renault and Citroen. I was Romania's car czar.

(Via the Corner) In response to President Obama's plans to tax the foreign income of companies incorporated in places like the Bahamas, Accenture has decided to do this. Technology outsourcing and consulting firm Accenture Ltd plans to change its place of incorporation to Ireland from Bermuda, following an exodus of large multinational companies to Europe as the U.S. government plans to tighten tax rules. Accenture said on Tuesday it does not expect any material change in its financial results or tax treatment, but said Ireland will provide economic benefits. Its board unanimously approved the move. "A member of the European...

For a while, I have been pointing out that not only is cap and trade in trouble of not passing, but if it does pass, it will only pass through a series of pay offs. The bill, now known as Waxman/Markey, just recently made it out of the energy committee. As it gets shaped, my worst fears are now being realized. The bill would set a cap on carbon emissions. Then, any business that wants to emit more carbons than the cap would have to buy a permit either from the government itself or from other companies. What's resulting is...

There has been a tension in the rhetoric of President Obama since he was inaugurated. He wants to be a post-partisan President, assuming that the opposition is well-intentioned and in honest disagreement with him. Yet he frequently implies that they are motivated by political calculation of narrow interests. Either of these is a perfectly serviceable rhetorical strategy - the problem is that he often takes both tacks in the same speech.

I know I will get some lefties pointing out that his approval ratings are still "through the roof". He's still popular, yes, not necessarily all that popular for a president in his second two hundred day. Regardless of that, President Obama now begins the real heavy lifting of his presidency. Over the next six to eighteen months here are some things facing the president: the deteriorating economy, closing GITMO, confronting Iran, winning in Afghanistan, passing both universal health care and cap and trade. No doubt his cult followers will believe he will ace all these tests, but in reality, there...

If you every watch or listen to Judge Andrew Napolitano, he explains the original intent of regulations in a very clear cut way. The root of regulation is regular. In other words, from time to time the market gets out of whack and it is the job of regulations to put things back into whack. Regulations are supposed to be meant to curb greed, excess, and make sure that things don't get out of control. Now, we all know that in fact they almost never actually do this. That is however their intent. That's why they are called regulations...to make...

Since I am about to make a sacrilegious statement, I also want to point out that I stand by my earlier thesis that said that history will place Clinton somewhere nearly Calvin Coolidge. Still, I will give Clinton credit in this way. He was the consummate politician, and when that politician happens to be your ideological opposite that isn't so bad. Just think about this. Clinton's best years were from 1995-1999. His best years he worked mostly with Republicans to get things done. Frankly, what are Clinton's signature legislation and actions? NAFTA, a balanced budget, and welfare reform...aren't all of...

Today, President Obama continued to show just how little he understands about the problem. The Obama administration yesterday unveiled a plan to regulate a vast market of exotic financial instruments known as derivatives, which fueled the global economic crisis and wounded some of the biggest names on Wall Street. As the administration's first step to overhaul financial regulations, the proposal calls on Congress to establish rules that would restrict the banks, hedge funds and other investors who trade derivatives on what have been called "dark markets" for their lack of oversight.

On Real Clear Politics, a story about Obama's health care proposal is aptly titled, Upfront Costs Complicate Obama's Health Care Plan. Costs are emerging as the biggest obstacle to President Barack Obama's ambitious plan to provide health insurance for everybody. The upfront tab could reach $1.2 trillion to $1.5 trillion over 10 years, while expected savings from wringing waste and inefficiency from the health care system may take longer to show. Details of the health legislation have not been written, but the broad outlines of the overhaul are known. Economists and other experts say the $634 billion that Obama's budget...

Most conservatives and even many liberals were appalled by the media's treatment of then candidate Barack Obama during the campaign. We all expected the same cheerleading treatment when he was president and so far we haven't been disappointed. What hasn't been discussed as much are the implications of a press that stops being watchdog and becomes nothing more than a propaganda arm of the administration. One obvious side effect is that corruption and mafeasance goes on and is left unchecked. Another side effect is that the government takes on new roles and powers without any sort of scrutiny of their...

The big business news this morning is the announcement that Chrysler will soon file for bankruptcy. Chrysler filed for bankruptcy protection Thursday afternoon in New York, a move President Obama said would give the company a "new lease on life." The president also announced that Chrysler has met his demand to strike a partnership with Italian automaker Fiat and said he thinks the alliance has a "strong chance of success." Chrysler faced a Thursday deadline to produce a restructuring plan, but some of the automaker's creditors reportedly declined an offer Wednesday from the Treasury Department that would give the lenders...

While officials in the Obama White House dismissed yesterday's "100 Days" anniversary as a "Hallmark Holiday," they understood it was what sociologist Daniel J. Boorstin called a "pseudo-event." By that, Boorstin meant an occasion that is not spontaneous but planned for the purpose of being reported -- an event that is important because someone says so, not because it is. What happens in a president's first 100 days rarely characterizes the arc of the 1,361 that follow. Jimmy Carter had a very good first 100 days. Bill Clinton did not.

When the Obama administration crashes and burns, with approval ratings that fall through the floor, political scientists can trace its demise to its first hundred days. While Americans are careful not to consign a presidency they desperately need to succeed to the dustbin of history, the fact is that this president has moved - on issue after issue - in precisely the opposite direction of what the people want him to do. Right now, Obama's ratings must be pleasing to his eye. Voters like him and his wife immensely and approve of his activism in the face of the economic...

When I read it this morning, I couldn't believe what I was reading. The whole idea is so corrupt and absurd even a business school class wouldn't study something like this. It's too absurd to imagine being done in real life. The UAW, the United Auto Workers, will now become majority shareholders in Chrysler and significant shareholders in GM. Meanwhile, the U.S. government will become majority shareholders in GM. What Fiat is thinking in merging with Chrysler I can't figure out.

In December 2007, Sen. Barack Obama’s reassurances to the Boston Globe suggested that he understood constitutional limits on executive and government power. He knew that there were things the “president does not have power under the Constitution” to do, including unilaterally authorizing military action and surveilling citizens without warrants. He said he would “reject the Bush administration’s claim that the president has plenary authority under the Constitution to detain U.S. citizens without charges as unlawful enemy combatants.”

The reason I don't watch MSNBC was confirmed this weekend. No less than three times did I flip onto the station for a brief minute when I noticed that they were analyzing, again, some poll that put Obama's popularity at 69%, which according to the graphic made him the most popular president in recent history. The answer for his defenders to any number of policy criticisms is to point to his popularity and to use that as proof that he is right and his opponents are out of touch. The president continues to be popular for two reasons primarily, his...