GM's IPO: A victory for Obama?

The automaker's public offering was a tremendous success. Does it also count as a big win for the White House?

GM CEO Dan Akerson (red tie) rings the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange Thursday.
(Image credit: Getty)

President Obama hailed GM's return to majority private ownership Thursday, saying the automaker's better-than-expected IPO vindicated his "tough" and much-maligned decisions to rescue the bankrupt company. Had he listened to the "doubters and naysayers" who wanted to "read the American auto industry last rites," Obama said, America would have lost more money and crippled its manufacturing backbone. Is it fair for Obama to claim credit? (Watch Obama's comments)

Obama earned his victory lap: Obama's controversial bailout of GM "certainly didn't make great politics in the midterm elections," says Simon Denyer in Reuters. But this "blockbuster" IPO was an implicit victory. It not only saved GM, but more than a million jobs, as well. And taxpayers will get most, if not all, of their money back. Maybe "bailout" won't be "such a poisonous word in the 2012 campaign."

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