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President Obama's word of the day is "fight." He used the words "fight" or "fighting" nine times in a brief speech to GM workers in Youngstown, Ohio.

In a campaign-style speech laced with populist themes, Mr. Obama repeatedly reminded the plant workers that he's fighting for them.

He told his audience, "As long as you've still got an ounce of fight left in you, I'll have a ton of fight left in me."

He also touched on his top domestic priority, declaring, "We are fighting for an America where no American should have to worry about going without health insurance or fear that one illness could cost them everything."

The president also announced plans for a new national standard designed to increase gas mileage and decrease greenhouse emissions for all new cars and trucks sold in the U.S. He predicted the action would give auto companies "long-overdue clarity, stability and predictability."

The president spoke near the production line where compact Chevy Cobalts are made. To the cheers of workers who build the cars, he said the model was among the most popular cars in the recent "cash for clunkers" program that paid new car buyers up to $4,500 to purchase more fuel efficient models.

GM has boosted production of the compact car and rehired laid-off workers at the plant where the president spoke.

Obama: Automakers Getting Back In Game

CBSNews.com Special Report: Health Care

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Peter Maer is a CBS News White House correspondent. This story was filed from Pittsburgh, Pa., where Mr. Obama speaks to the AFL CIO convention later today. You can read more of his posts in Hotsheet here.

Though the U.S. government will be the majority stockholder of the new General Motors, the administration says it’ll keep its hands off management decisions.

“What I have no interest in doing is running GM,” the president declared today as he announced the additional $30-billion dollar “investment” to help the company emerge from bankruptcy and become competitive again.

Mr. Obama said a new Board of Directors and management team will “call the shots” for GM - not the government.

But the president will be missing an opportunity to put his administration's imprint on the new GM. Think of the impact if he took it upon himself to name the new models of GM cars:

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President Obama went before the cameras today to discuss General Motors' bankruptcy filing as well as Chrysler's planned emergence from bankruptcy and the future of the United States auto industry.

The president said he recognized that the government's decision to take a 60 percent ownership stake in GM "may give some Americans pause." He said the administration has had to take steps "that we would not have otherwise even considered" because it inherited "a financial crisis unlike any that we've seen in our time."

"These steps have put our government in the unwelcome position of owning large stakes in private companies for the simple and compelling reason that their survival and the success of our overall economy depend on it," said Mr. Obama.

"What I have no interest in doing is running GM," he added. "GM will be run by a private board of directors and management team with a track record in American manufacturing that reflects a commitment to innovation and quality." (The board and management team, of course, will be answerable to the company's majority shareholder – the U.S. government.)

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A roundup of news, schedules, and key stories from CBS News Political Director Steve Chaggaris:

Before President Obama heads out on a five-day trip to Europe and the Middle East this week, today at 11:55 a.m. ET he'll deal with some important business on the home front: General Motors' bankruptcy filing and the future of the auto industry.

"President Barack Obama couldn't let General Motors fail, but he won't concede he's taking over the company," reports the Associated Press' Jim Kuhnhenn. "With a 60 percent equity stake in the carmaker and $50 billion in taxpayer money riding on GM's success, the federal government isn't exactly a hands-off investor. As GM enters into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Obama's economic team is stressing that its goals are to maximize the return to taxpayers and to exit from its involvement as quickly as possible. But as one administration official put it Sunday night, there is an inevitable tension between those two objectives."

"Even after nine months of extraordinary government intervention, the scope and complexity of the General Motors Corp. rescue present a thicket of conflicts unlike any seen before in Washington," add the Wall Street Journal's Neil King Jr., Jeffrey McCracken and Mike Spector.

"The federal government is likely within weeks to emerge as the principal owner of a storied U.S. corporation whose factories and products touch the lives of tens of millions of Americans. It will simultaneously serve as the company's regulator, tax collector, customer, pension backstop and lender. The administration put out a set of overarching principles Sunday meant to guide its interactions with GM and other companies in which the U.S. has an equity stake. The points stressed that the administration has no desire to own parts of companies and would do so only under extreme conditions. Once helping a company such as GM restructure, the government would manage its stake "in a hands-off, commercial manner" and not get involved in issuing day-to-day directives to GM, the guidelines said.

"Obama aides have wrestled for weeks over how to portray the government's increasing involvement as an active player in the private sector. But given the size of the $50 billion U.S. investment, it will be hard for President Barack Obama and Congress to say they will remain uninvolved in a company saved only by taxpayer largesse."

Detroit Free Press' Tim Higgins, "GM files for bankruptcy"

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As General Motors heads down the road to bankruptcy aided by taxpayer dollars, Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) says the U.S. is on the road toward socialism.

Speaking to The Early Show Friday, a day after the auto giant reached a deal — brokered by the U.S. government — with its bondholders that will eliminate the company's unsecured debt in exchange for stock, Shelby said bankruptcy was unavoidable, but that the decision should have been made six months ago.

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Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said today that General Motors and the American auto industry will require "very substantial restructuring," and that the Obama administration is prepared to help make that process work.

"We're prepared to explore all options to make that possible, but our test is, what's going to work? What's going to allow them to emerge from this strong enough so they can survive without assistance from the government on an ongoing basis?" Geithner said on CBS News' Face The Nation.

One option he did not rule out is a controlled bankruptcy for GM.

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Arizona Sen. John McCain posted on Twitter today that "calling for GM CEO to resign is unprecedented window dressing."

"GM needs restructuring as part of pre-negotiated bankruptcy package," he added.

The 2008 Republican presidential nominee is referring to the Sunday resignation of General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner, who was forced out by the White House in an effort to give the embattled auto company a "clean slate."

Industry experts told CBS News that Wagoner is perceived to have been insufficiently willing to face off with the union and that the president is trying to send a message to the company to get serious about cost-cutting if it wants more taxpayer money.

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Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland said today that a collapse of one of the "Big Three" American car companies would not only effect the other two, but would also have a huge impact on foreign car makers, too.

"It will impact all auto companies -- including Honda and Toyota and all the others -- because they have the same supply network," Stickland, a Democrat, said on CBS News' Face The Nation. "This supply chain is very fragile, and if it starts to collapse it could have a cascading effect that could quite frankly cripple an industry that has been so vital to the economy of our entire nation for so long. So it's very important that the auto industry gets the help it needs to survive."

Strickland also told host Bob Schieffer about conversations he's had with officials from Honda about the problems facing General Motors, Chrysler and Ford.

"I've had officials from the Honda corporation come to me, say to me, 'Governor, we're not usually in the business of advocating for our competitors, but it is so important that the auto industry and the big three be preserved.'"