Now 63% of Americans back auto bailout

First they were against the auto bailout, now they're for it.  How to explain such a rapid turnaround in U.S. public opinion?  I mean, now 51 percent of Americans believe that the failure of U.S. automakers would cause "major problems" for the U.S. economy, and 15 percent think it would cause a "crisis," although, interestingly (and naively?), 82 percent don't think it would affect them personally.  We also see that Republicans are split down the middle on the bailout, 51 to 49 percent, while 70 percent of Dems predictably support it.

CNN's Bill Schneider offers up "fear" as the reason for the reversed poll numbers, but he doesn't explain why Americans are afraid now when they weren't two weeks ago.  Do we have Obama and the dastardly lib'rul media to thank for this rapid re-education of Americans?  Or have cooler heads simply prevailed, after seeing our Republican President announce that the auto bailout was a fait accompli?

Here's what hasn't changed in two weeks:  Nearly two-thirds of Americans are still reluctant to buy a car for an automaker in bankruptcy, meaning that bankruptcy would probably kill GM and Chrysler, because they can't survive cost cutting and restructuring while selling even fewer cars than now, when auto sales are down 25-30 percent from 2007. 



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Poll: Public OK with auto bailout, but no more aid

By Paul Steinhauser,

December 23, 2008  |  CNN.com

A new national poll Monday finds a majority of Americans approve of recent loans to big U.S. automakers, but less than 3 in 10 would support additional assistance.

Sixty-three percent of those questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey support the White House loaning more than $13 billion to American automakers Chrysler and General Motors, while 37 percent opposed the move.

In exchange for the loans, the deal calls for the auto companies to show by the end of March plans for viable new business models.

The poll numbers out Monday are drastically different from a similar poll from early December.

Sixty-one percent of those questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey out December 3 were against the federal government providing billions of dollars to the automakers, with 36 percent favoring such a bailout.  Video: Watch why six in 10 support the bailout

Monday's poll shows 53 percent of Americans don't think government assistance for the automakers will help the U.S. economy.

But just 28 percent said they would approve providing the automakers with more money, while 70 percent said they would prefer to let them go bankrupt.

"The opposition to any additional assistance may be a reluctance to spend more money that they think the government may never see again," Holland added. "Only 28 percent say the auto companies involved in the current program will be able to pay all or most of the $13 billion back; one in five say they will not be able to pay any of it back to the government.

"This perceived lack of ability to pay taxpayers back may be one reason why the poll indicates auto executives are not very popular with Americans. Eighty-two percent of those questioned have a negative view of auto executives."

Union leaders don't fare well either: Sixty-one percent of those polled have a negative view of them.

Two-thirds of those polled said they would be less likely to buy a car from an auto company in bankruptcy.

The CNN/Opinion Research poll was conducted Friday through Sunday, with 1,013 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The survey's sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.