Fortune's Alex Taylor reports that "The president-elect can do more for the auto industry than anyone since Henry Ford."Taylor lists plenty of do's and don'ts for Obama: Do consider a prepackaged bankruptcy, don't tell companies how to do business, raise the gas tax and more.
All good advice to be sure, but will it really matter? As I see it, General Motors (NYSE: GM), Ford (NYSE: F) and Chrysler have to do two things in order to become viable again: build cars that can compete in the marketplace on quality and price and reduce their cost structures by enough to achieve profitability.
I'm not sure that Obama or anyone else outside of the executive suite can do much to achieve either of those goals.
Will low-interest loans help? In the short-term, of course: Any company that's running out of money will last longer if you give it cash. But whether these companies will ever become viable again is out of Obama's hands.
As a nation, we seem to be evolving toward consensus that saddling employers with the responsibility of arranging and paying for health care is an inefficient system. Such a system demands companies develop expertise that has no relationship to their core business. 
Ford 
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