GM's new owners

"We're all GM families now," said Eugene Robinson in The Washington Post. Under the restructuring that sent General Motors into bankruptcy court, American taxpayers own 60 percent of the giant, money-losing automaker. President Obama promises to "leave management of the company to professionals," but this is just a "temporary reprieve" unless the professionals wise up and start producing the hybrid SUVs Americans want to buy.

Rest assured, said Larry Kudlow in The Washington Times, GM— "Government Motors"—will crank out the "little green two-door cars" that President Obama wants, but "most folks won't want to buy." And with the United Auto Workers union insisting that the vehicles won't be produced in low-cost union plants overseas, "Obama's little green cars will be unprofitable, as well."

Give Obama credit, said the Los Angeles Times in an editorial. He's giving GM another shot at building cars that will sell. "If the restructuring goes through as planned, GM will owe the administration some thanks for pushing unions, creditors, and company management to make the profound changes needed to become competitive again."

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Merging with the federal government won't make GM "more like successful car companies," said David Brooks in The New York Times. It will make it less like them. And Washington will never pull the plug now that it owns GM, even though a company that has to "serve two masters, the market and the administration's policy goals," can't succeed.