CNN Poll: Six In 10 Oppose Federal Automakers Bailout

When President-Elect Barack Obama said a few weeks ago that the automakers had not made their case very well for getting a big, fat federal bailout, it turns out he was speaking for a growing number of Americans: a new poll finds that a politically-poisonous six in 10 now oppose the federal government bailing out the big three auto makers:

A national poll suggests that six in 10 Americans oppose using taxpayer money to help the ailing major U.S. auto companies.

Sixty-one percent of those questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey out Wednesday are dead set against the federal government providing billions of dollars in assistance for the automakers, with 36 percent favoring such a bailout.

The poll, conducted Monday and Tuesday, also indicates that a majority of Americans, 53 percent, don’t think government assistance for the automakers will help the U.S. economy.

“Only 15 percent say that they would be immediately affected if the auto companies went bankrupt,” CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said. “Seven in 10 say that a bailout would be unfair to American taxpayers.”

According to CNN, this poll represents a significant shift. In November polls showed nearly 50 percent of the public supported a bailout when the automakers were about to testify before Congress. But various other data, CNN says, “suggests that the poor performance by executives from GM, Ford and Chrysler at congressional hearings, and the admission that they had taken private jets to get there, resulted in a steep drop in support for government assistance to automakers.”

The bottom line: it is not easy to undo a bad image, and when the automakers came before Congress to plead they desperately needed the money and then the news came out that they had flown there in their private jets, their trip was a bust. Not only were they denounced by politicos and newspaper editorials due to their lousy performance and judgment, but they were lambasted by the Internet’s new media and — worst of all — ridiculed by comedians.

But is the tide now turning for the automakers? And, if it appears it is, CAN IT turn in their favor given numbers like this? Here are some new developments:

*President-Elect Barack Obama says he reserves judgment on the automakers plans. He says Congress has the right to demand to see a plan but that the new plan that’s being presented does seem “more serious.” The transcript of Obama’s sixth press conference (he is proving to be a highly accessible Oval Office winner) is HERE.

*The UAW is making some concessions to help the Big Three.

*But Senator Carl Levin says big hurdles remain in Congress.

*The Christian Science Monitor looks at where this issue is with Congress in this MUST READ

*Port workers are watching the auto industry’s ills and worrying: does this mean their jobs are in danger?

*Automakers sales continue to show a big decline.

The problem with the poll: it indicates many in the public feel money spent on the automakers is either a lost cause or they simply don’t deserve it after their private jet public relations fiasco and the resulting condemnations and comedian punch lines. This makes it all the more difficult for lawmakers who might feel it is vital to rescue the industry and who are willing go consider going out on a political limb. A top carmaker executive is arguing that, if the companies fail, it could lead to a full-fledged American depression. Other dismiss such talk as hype to get a bailout.

Cartoon by RJ Matson, The St. Louis Post Dispatch