Ask the Best and Brightest: "Could U.S.-shaped GM Board Impede Automaker's Recovery?"

by Robert Farago

June 7th, 2009 1:42 AM

ask the best and brightest could u s shaped gm board impede automaker s recovery

The question/headline comes to us straight from Automotive News [AN, sub]. Is there ANYONE who DOESN’T see this as a possibility? Probability? Certainty? Done deal? Meanwhile, I love this riff from AN‘s unnamed writer: “Two decades ago, Texas tycoon Ross Perot dubbed his fellow GM directors ‘pet rocks’ who sat silently beside then-CEO Roger Smith. More recently, the board was considered too close to former CEO and Chairman Rick Wagoner, who was ousted by President Barack Obama’s administration in March after the company lost tens of billions under his watch. New blood for GM’s board may be a welcome thing.”

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Long126mike on Jun 07, 2009
Since you have no problem with the National Council of La Raza, I suppose you wouldn’t object to the Council of the Aryan Race, right? Could you be more predictable? You said she is a racist because she affiliated with an organization with the term "the race" in it. Naturally, you thought you'd then pounce on me with some counterexample about Aryans, since what would a lame Internet debate be without bringing up Nazism? Could you explain why exactly you feel compelled to be on this particular soapbox in a thread about GM's board as it relates to its fortunes going forward? Please go back to Freeperville or wherever you feel comfortable with these fevered notions you have.

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Ronnie Schreiber on Jun 07, 2009
Could you be more predictable? Could you please address the point? You said she is a racist because she affiliated with an organization with the term “the race” in it. That's an absolute lie. I never called her a racist and I demand an apology. I called her a racialist and a racial essentialist. She obviously believes that certain attitudes and aptitudes are determined by ethnicity. That's a philosophy I find troubling. Like many self professed progressives you see what you want to see, not reality. Naturally, you thought you’d then pounce on me with some counterexample about Aryans, since what would a lame Internet debate be without bringing up Nazism? Once again you avoid the issue. Just how is the Council for La Raza different from any other racialist organization? You're using the "reverse Godwin gambit" in which an appropriate analogy to Nazis or Neo Nazis can be dismissed out of hand by a reference to Godwin and the internet. Could you explain why exactly you feel compelled to be on this particular soapbox in a thread about GM’s board as it relates to its fortunes going forward? Actually, I didn't bring up the issue of Judge Sotomayor, it was one of the B&B's liberals who was ranting about conservatives. You're just deaf and blind about stuff coming from your side. Go ahead, keep on defending the indefensible. I'd rather talk about cars than politics, but in a thread about how the government will shape GM's BOD, it's impossible to not discuss politics. Please go back to Freeperville or wherever you feel comfortable with these fevered notions you have. More projection from a self-righteous progressive. It's funny, though pathetic, how much stereotyping of conservatives goes on from the left. I think I've checked out Free Republic maybe twice. While I have libertarian sympathies, I'm hardly a freeper. I'm really a classical Jeffersonian liberal, which puts me on the right today, I suppose. I do believe that statist nannies like yourself want to control my life, my behavior and my property. You think that everything will be cool because you'll be the one making the rules.

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Stewart Dean on Jun 07, 2009

Oh boy, is this a blood-in-the-water shark bait issue or what? My 2 cents. After 50 years of motoring towards the cliff and then over it, while having their "vision" firmly fixed in the rear-view mirror, *any* change in GM's management would have to be really excreably inspired to do worse the previous GM old-boy management. Boy Scouts, grannies with walkers could do better.

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Cynder70 on Jun 08, 2009

The New York Times, on June 2, writes an editorial about democratizing BODs. http://is.gd/SVwU SEC proposes a rule change that members/groups with at least 1% of stock can submit their own candidate for election to the BOD. This can lead to groups proposing their own agenda but it doesn't mean the remaining 99% of shareholders have to vote for their candidate. Interesting article and on topic.

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