WHITACRE: PHONING IT IN AT GM?

[Get the latest "Truth With Speedzzter" here]

According to the Automotive News:

Edward Whitacre Jr., former chairman and CEO of telecommunications giant AT&T Inc., today was selected to become chairman of the new General Motors when the automaker emerges from bankruptcy

.

Apparently in Obama-land, running "Government Motors" isn't really any different from being the head honcho of Ma Bell.

The son of a railroad engineer, Whitacre grew up trapping frogs and shooting rabbits with his shotgun in the fields of Ennis, Tex., a small railroad town about 40 miles south of Dallas. In high school, he played first base on the baseball team and defensive end on the football squad.

"Big Ed" drove "an old Ford" to college at Texas Tech and spent four decades with the telephone company. Reportedly he drove a Cadillac before he chuted out of AT&T with a whopping $158.5 Million retirement nestegg.

That ought to make him an expert on automobiles . . . .

To further stir the "Government Motors" political intrigue, someone named "Edward Whitacre" in San Antonio has allegedly contributed to Obama Chief Attack Dog/Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, Vice President Hillary Clinton, and Democrat Senator Mark Pryor.

Politics aside, the Whitacre pick recalls Jim Wangers' recent commentary on the death of Pontiac published in Pontiac Enthusiast magazine. Instead of the "bad decision" approach taken by Truth With Speedzzter, Wangers "named names" in a "wrong person" approach. His thesis was basically that GM had saddled Pontiac with a Chernyenko-like succession of clueless leaders. The last couple of savants in charge of PMD, according to Wangers, were exactly the sorts of non-automotive "brand managers" favored by some Wall Street/generic consumer product marketing types. They, of course, didn't really understand what Pontiac was and helped drive GM into the ground.

Is Whitacre another train wreck? Does he make even the "appliance motorists" on the Obama Car Czar Central Committee look like a group of Henry Fords?

Stay tuned.