The latest in the General Motors saga appears to be a case of either embarrassingly bungled communications or wretched diplomacy by the Obama Administration.
In brief: GM had announced plans to sell Opel, the German car manufacturer. The German government spent months brokering a deal with a Canadian-Russian venture to buy Opel and preserve jobs in Germany. Two days ago, GM decided that it won’t sell Opel; instead, it will keep the company and seek German government aid to restructure its operations — effectively scuttling all the work the German government has done to balance its sensitive business-labor environment.
The kicker is that, according to the Wall Street Journal, no one in the Obama Administration bothered to inform German Chancellor Angela Merkel that GM was about to drop its bombshell.
What’s more, Chancellor Merkel was in Washington meeting with the president and Congressional leaders at the time the decision was made.
As the Journal explains, “Throughout her meetings, Ms. Merkel had no indication that GM, which is majority owned by the U.S. government, was about to back out of the Opel sale. GM’s chief executive, Frederick ‘Fritz’ Henderson, notified the chancellor’s delegation that the … deal was dead shortly before Ms. Merkel was due to board a plane home.”
This is blatant amateurism on the Administration’s part. And their excuse, according to spokesman Robert Gibbs? “Business decisions by GM are made by the corporate leadership at GM and not by anybody at the White House.”
Gibbs’s statement is more finely tuned than anything GM has produced in the last 20 years. After all, the question isn’t whether the White House made the decision, but whether it knew about the decision and had the courtesy to inform one of America’s oldest allies that it was coming down the pike. It defies logic to think the White House was in the dark. If they were, that speaks to a whole new level of communications trouble.
This decision, coming as it does after the US reneged on its plans for a missile defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, and the president’s insistence on keeping quiet about Iran’s nuclear facility at Qom while Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy begged him to raise the issue at the UN, is evidence of an Administration that takes its friends for granted.
PS, Chancellor Merkel was in town because President Obama is too busy to attend this month’s ceremonies marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. But he will make it to Norway in December for another, uh, historic event.
I think it’s fair to say that most Obama voters knew the president would try to win over our foes with charm and diplomacy. But were they also expecting the Administration to insult our close friends?
It may be fun to fantasize about diplomacy while you’re daydreaming in the Senate. But once you get to the Oval, decisions matter. It’s time for President Obama to demonstrate some reality-based leadership in world affairs.
