Did Mitt Romney just apply for the “Car Czar” job?

I read with interest this morning’s NY Times editorial from Mitt Romney regarding the auto industry bailout. I must admit that I share many of his sentiments and concerns. The most foundational is the fear that putting more money into the same old system would only result in the same old output. GM’s open letter advertisement, saying, “People don’t think GM has done enough” (which they go on to try and refute) is absolutely true. GM, Chrysler and Ford have not done enough. The people are correct. Romney’s cry that there needs to be more innovation in R&D, Marketing and Labor Relations is dead on. I have always been fascinated with the Labor Relations approach and attitude of Detroit on both the company and union sides. Growing up professionally and learning labor relations strategies and tactics and having negotiated a Teamster’s contract, I can tell you that if Labor and Capital see themselves, as Detroit has for too many years, as adversaries or at the least, mistrusting co-workers, then there will be no innovation or progress to be made. The trigger word “concessions” is what we continue to hear that workers must make. What is lost is where are the “concessions” that the automakers are making on the other side of the equation? It appears that the years of lack of concessions from the automakers to change their ways and thinking, has finally caught up with them. And now they want to be “bailed out”. I like what Mitt had to say. His open professed love of cars, being from Detroit, his history with his father as the CEO of American Motors, and his broad view of corporate structuring and restructuring, makes him the ideal candidate to shake things up. I somehow think that Chrysler might have been in a better place had they hired Mitt away from the campaign trail vs. Bob Nardelli from his unsuccessful run at Home Depot. So, if we put government money into Detroit, which I believe we will end up doing, then let’s be sure and have a caretaker over that money and let’s put Mitt’s hat in the ring to be that person. How about it Mitt? Could you take $25B and turn it into $250B and set the course for an American car industry resurgence that returns to be an international powerhouse? You’d get my, if we could choose, vote.