The 31-Year-Old in Charge of Dismantling G.M.

NY Times ^ | 06/01/2009 | Free America

[Free America52]

WASHINGTON — It is not every 31-year-old who, in a first government job, finds himself dismantling General Motors and rewriting the rules of American capitalism.

Brian Deese, who interrupted his law school career, is the little-seen force behind the revamping of the American auto industry.

But that, in short, is the job description for Brian Deese, a not-quite graduate of Yale Law School who had never set foot in an automotive assembly plant until he took on his nearly unseen role in remaking the American automotive industry.

[Free America52]

We are in deep doo-doo if this is the guy - who has no business experience - is in charge of the GM restructuring.

[hoosiermama]

amateur

[Eric in the Ozarks]

$10 says he can't drive a stickshift.

[hoosiermama]

Maybe he sleeps at a Holiday Inn!

[DrC]

We were in deep doo-doo the instant we elected a guy with no executive experience and the most left-leaning member of the Senate to be in charge of the entire federal government. Having an inexperienced 31-year-old in charge of dismantling GM is merely a symptom of a far more grave problem.

[Free Vulcan]

bookmark

[gov_bean_ counter]

Barely old enough to wipe his own a$$.

[EGPWS]

We are in deep doo-doo if this is the guy - who has no business experience - is in charge of the GM restructuring.

I bet he saves 15% on auto insurance though.

[gov_bean_ counter]

Puppet. Best look around and see who is pulling the strings.

[ml/nj]

YOU don't understand. (Supposedly) Good intentions are much more important than experience.

ML/NJ

[EGPWS]

It is not every 31-year-old who, in a first government job, finds himself dismantling General Motors...

Well, considering the experience of our present POTUS, it doesn't surprise me.

[Big_Monkey]

He's the son of two New England academics. It's fair to say that he's never been in any business setting, let alone has he had any management experience. We don't even know if he's had a summer job.

You really can't make this up. Obama fired Rick Wagoner, to put this kid in charge of GM.

[Red in Blue PA]

Yet another story of which I will ask....is this from Scrapplface or The Onion?

[Mr. K]

It's High School government day in Washington- every day for the next 4 years

[MAD-AS-HELL]

Actually, I am rooting that this guy does end up making the right decisions. Will go to show that many of those smart intellectuals with the fancy degrees aren’t always the answer. Heck, it’s those type of people that have f*cked this country and ruined government. And your assessment of this guy is just like many said of Reagan. He’s no politician, he’s just a B movie star!

If you read the article, you learn very clearly that the so called car guys at GM were running the company into the ground and strung the gov along for billions of dollars claiming BK is not an option. Well, this kid knew it was and put a stop to the bleeding and the waste of billions of dollars (GM should have gone into BK long ago saving us billions of dollars).

I don’t want Obama to succeed and it might be too late to help either, but so far this kid has been right.

I, for one, hope he has success as he will prove that sometimes having too much experience is necessarily a good thing.

[SonnyBubba]

What? You guys don't trust Obama to choose the most qualified person he can find, based solely on his or her experience, to do the job of running GM?
Neither do I.

[MAD-AS-HELL]

and what about those who ran Chrysler and GM? Did they have business experience? How good of a job did they do with all that experience?

Many of you are having a knee jerk reaction to this kid. So far he’s been on the money even though those who put him there definitely show they might not know what they are doing.

But this kid might end up being the right person.

[Dr.Deth]

31, and still in school?

[spectre]

Well..Obama has a 27 year old speech writer named Jon Favreau who will explain to us what the GM restructuring is all about...via TOTUS that is.

sw

[Free America52]

I am a 53 year old who works as VP Sales for a small software company. I was pretty smart when I was young also, tested very high over the years on IQ and other placement tests. But the difference in “intelligence” as measured by academic standards and “smart” as measured by business standards are night and day. There is no way this 31 year old dweeb has the business acumen to run GM.