You Don't Say: Obama Staying Out of Auto Bailout Fight on the Hill

I guess, technically, he's neither a senator nor the president at the moment, but that didn't stop him from negotiating for an auto bailout during his private meeting with Bush, and leaking his version of the details.

Then, he told "60 Minutes" he'd like to "see how this thing plays itself out," before offering an apparent endorsement of a bailout with strings attached:

For the auto industry to completely collapse would be a disaster in this kind of environment, not just for individual families but the repercussions across the economy would be dire. So it's my belief that we need to provide assistance to the auto industry. But I think that it can't be a blank check.

So my hope is that over the course of the next week, between the White House and Congress, the discussions are shaped around providing assistance but making sure that that assistance is conditioned on labor, management, suppliers, lenders, all the stakeholders coming together with a plan what does a sustainable U.S. auto industry look like? So that we are creating a bridge loan to somewhere as opposed to a bridge loan to nowhere. And that's, I think, what you haven't yet seen. That's something that I think we're gonna have to come up with.

But as public opinion begins to stack up against the position Obama momentarily staked out, he characteristically withdraws:

President-elect Barack Obama is staying out of the congressional fight over bailing out the U.S. auto industry, despite his previous statements urging help for Detroit's struggling Big Three, a leading Senate Democrat said Wednesday.

"I can tell you flat out there will be no endorsement [by Mr. Obama] prior to January 20," said Senate Banking Committee Chariman Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut a day after his committee heard a combined appeal for billions of dollars in taxpayer help from the heads of General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co, and Chrysler LLC.

Around about January 21, I'm sure we'll get a convoluted endorsement of whatever the White House and Congress did (or didn't) cobble together as this thing "played itself out." He'll sprinkle it with stern words for the auto CEOs who shamed Main Street by flying their Wall-Street-style jets to Washington, and an assurance that was "consistently for" whatever passes, until such a time as it doesn't work, at which point he'll say he "always said" he was for the opposite, and no one heeded his admonitions, despite the fact that he's the most powerful Democrat in the nation.

The man doesn't want to have a position. Positions are just political liabilities, whereas cop-outs can be cajoled into charmingly nuanced and inscrutable interview answers.

Obama leadership: "Well, let's see how this thing plays itself out."

It can work for auto bailouts. It ain't gonna work with Iran.