GM was discussing the sale of Hummer months before Obama won the election. Didn't they cover that on Fox News?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hummer

"On June 3, 2008, one day prior to GM's annual shareholder meeting, Rick Wagoner, GM's CEO at that time, said the brand was being reviewed, and had the possibility of either being sold, having the production line completely redesigned, or being discontinued.[7] This is due to the decreasing demand for large SUVs as a result of higher oil prices. Almost immediately after the announcement, a pair of Indian automakers, including Mahindra & Mahindra, expressed interest in purchasing all or part of Hummer.[8] GM President Fritz Henderson stated several interested parties approached GM regarding the Hummer business."


Note that they were discussing it because sales were falling, due to high oil prices. They don't even mention Obama.... funny that?

Its a bit tough to blame the President for a process that began well before he was even elected?

Saving Hummer would have required a good old dose of communism - pour in government money to keep producing a product that not enough people want to buy.

Are you a communist by any chance?

If high gas prices were to blame, how about levelling the blame at the chap who thought starting a war in the Middle East (the where the world's biggest oil producers are) looking for weapons that didn't exist would be a good idea? The cost has bankrupted the USA, and its been uphill all the way for gas prices since then.

When trying to find someone to blame its best to look at the facts and let them lead you to the perpetrator, rather than start with the perpetrator and then contort the facts (or even make up some new ones) to fit.

 

funny... I remember gas prices started to climb when clinton was in office.
are you going to blame that on bush too?
and if your theory was true how come prices are close to pre-war level now? wouldnt they contenue to rise since we are still in the middle east?

as for the communism remark that sounds a lot like what obama did for AIG

 

amen!

 

Actually the left (democrats) received the same information as the Bush administration relative to weapons of mass destruction and almost to a man, were in favor of the invasion. So why is this JUST Bush? How quickly we forget and the crooked politicians "revise" their positions at the time.

On the order of the economy, the democrats were running congress prior to the crash, that is where the money is spent. That is also who controlled the banking industry and forced these unsecured loans upon them, started with Clinton. The republicans should have shut it down for the decade they controlled congress out of the last several decades but failed to do so. Much of that was due to their demonization by the tilted press.

The war has not bankrupted this country, excessive spending by our elected officials of both parties have done that over decades and it is only getting worse with the so called stimulus bills. We as voters are responsible for NOT getting rid of them. We have been more interested in the fast food joint with the best deal for dinner and what is on the idiot box than with who is running our country (into the ground).

Wake up folks, we are being railroaded and set against each other by lies and deceit and the media is part of the problem. Dig a bit for your facts, our grandchildren are paying the bill.

God Bless

 

Completely agree - and we're still there spending billions with a democrat president, even though there are no WMDs, and no Saddam. Obama hasn't delivered, the money is still pouring out to the Middle East.

Both sides knew the information was bogus, as did most European governments. The recent Iraq enquiry in my native UK has confirmed what we knew at the time - the UN inspectors were on the ground, they weren't being obstructed and were happy with the level of access they had, and when they went to the places that the British and US told them had WMDs, they found deserted places, often that clearly hadn't been used for years.

The public was sold a pack of lies by all the politicians. People have grown rich from this war. Many more have died.

The war has cost literally trillions. Its part of that excessive expenditure. War is expensive. WW2 virtually bankrupted the UK - though at least in that case we were fighting for our very survival. To spend trillions (and think of the trillions yet to be spent caring for all the bereaved and maimed) to fight a war over weapons that didn't exist - mindless.

Afghanistan bankrupted the Soviet Union - war is expensive. We've been there 8 years now, and no closer to an end. Have we been suckered by the same strategy our Islamist friends used against the Sovs? Looks a lot like it.

Money is being found to continue to kill people all over the world, and to save rich bankers bonuses - and people seem happy with this. But suggest spending money on healthcare of Americans - and you'll get all kinds of flack. Surely the government should just be cutting spending all round - that's what you do when you are skint?

But of course there are other issues, largely an ageing population. As people live longer government can't afford for them to retire at 65 or whenever when they are living to 85+. The sums just don't add up - and this is the same problem in the UK and much of Europe. No politician seems prepared to face it - retirement age must rise.

Right or left, democrat or Republican - they all know there is no votes in telling people you gotta work into your 70s. So they just keep borrowing.

Ultimately this brings us back to GM and Hummer. A large part of the reason for the failure (aside from ignoring the changing winds on fuel prices) is the massive burden of their pensioners - the costs they have to charge on each car to pay for the pensions of people who haven't worked there for years. Thats the same burden America and Western Europe have on a larger scale. Until we cut that burden (and that means people working longer - more years paying into a pension you collect for less time) we'll never compete with China and India, and continue on our way to bankruptcy, just as GM did.

 

this IS still a HUMMER forum.....isn't it???

 

Spare me the Fox stuff.

They were also talking about selling off Saturn and other divisions.

The summer of 2008 was killing anything that didn't have a lawn mower engine in it. Gas was over $4 per gallon. That did not keep any SUV company happy nor the prospects of those brands.

Gas has since fallen, though it is rising again, but a decent economy would revive the market of SUV's.

And, I couldn't disagree more. GM, within months, is now an Obama company. They better come up with cars that drive on air or else.

Can't say it enough, the US Government got in the way. Yes, Bush loaned them money, but Obama delivered them to the unions. Guess GM won't be around much longer anyway with the UAW running things.

All I know, is that the Hummer is the best vehicle I have ever owned.

 

Sure, but lets stick to the facts
1) GM was discussing selling or closing Hummer well before Obama was elected. Thats a fact.
2) Hummer sales never recovered to anywhere near previous levels, even as the oil price fell.

As for a decent economy - Obama wasn't president when the banking system collapsed. Are you going to pin that one on him too?

If you're a car company who can't sell enough cars you go bust. That's capitalism. If Bush and Obama hadn't bailed out GM Hummer would likely be dead already. In my opinion that is what they should have done, much as I love my Hummer.

You can blame on whoever you like - even if it is a president who was only elected months after GM was already looking to sell Hummer - but it doesn't change the facts.

Hummer is up for sale now. There is no forced closure. If someone else thinks they can make money where GM failed then they just have to come in and do the deal. Will they? Only time will tell.

Assuming someone else does come in and save Hummer - what are you going to blame on Obama in that case? The poor weather? The Canadian Ice Hockey victory?

 

Discussing and doing are two different things.
hummer sales havent recoverd because people are afraid to buy them when they think that hummer might not be arround to service and sell parts.
oldsmobile sales fell off too when they announced they were closing.
you can still get parts but people didnt know that and gm doesnt exactly advertise it.
looking at hummer sales before the anounment of closure, I wanna say I seen them in the 200,000 per year range. Thats what subaru does and you dont see them trying to close.
as for gm being gone without a bailout.. hardly
The government wasted money bailing them out and thats obama and Bush.
the unions are what bankrupted gm and now they own a big portion.
if gm would of been allowed to do a real bankruptcy they could of busted up the unions and paid a more industry competitive wage.
the average union worker cost way more than non union at toyota or any other.

the other fall back is gm is slow to adapt.
they had flex fuel a long time ago yet they didnt offer it in hummer.
DOD and hybrid models could of helped clean up hummers image too.

 

Will Hummer still be made in South Africa??