General Motors President Says Bankruptcy Not an Option

This time around, the automotive executives didn't fly in on private jets. This time they drove hybrids to their Congressional hearings to beg the U.S. government for more than $25 Billion in federal bailout money. They were contrite and seemed to acknowledge their mistakes of a few weeks ago, when the leaders of America's automotive industry looked unprepared and ill-equipped to handle questions regarding their plans to use taxpayer money to rescue their dying companies. The first time through, some of the highest paid executives in the world assumed that simply appearing before Congress and sheepishly asking for the money would be enough.

If enough emphasis was placed on the idea that American jobs and towns would suffer if the government didn't help, they thought, the money would grudgingly be handed over. That wasn't the case the first time around.

Now the executives are back for a second run at Congress. This time, they actually have a "plan" to present to lawmakers that presumably explains exactly what they are going to do with taxpayer money to turn their industry around. These companies are corporate behemoths, likely too large to make any significant structural changes in only weeks or even months. Each has conceded that the billions being sought in aid is only bridge financing to reach the early portion of 2009, when they "hope" things will get better. Unfortunately, that's not likely to be the case.

Just as the housing market spiked for a few years and created our current financial crisis, it is unlikely that the U.S. is going to return to its old ways of purchasing large, over-priced vehicles from U.S. automakers. We've all seen $4 per gallon gasoline -- and no one thinks that we won't see those prices again, as soon as the global economy stabilizes.

Things have to change drastically in Detroit and they have to change quickly. It's unclear yet whether the leadership in place has the tools or the ability to effect such change in the near term - or at all.