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Big Three Auto Chiefs Fly Into PR Turbulence

Unwittingly, the CEOs of the Big Three automakers gave lawmakers all the PR ammunition they needed to fight back against the auto industry bailout when all three arrived in Washington to beg for money in private jets.

That's right. Three. Private. Jets.

If that act of arrogance doesn't tell you all you need to know about the fundamental problems of our Big Three automakers, nothing does. Their organizations are bloated and inefficient from top to bottom, and they've been making cars America (and the world) doesn't want to buy for years. So rather than tightening their own belts and truly economizing, they continued their high-living ways and showed up in Washington in airborne limousines.

Their spinmeisters were left to point out that at that level of Corporate America, such travel arrangements are de rigueur. Sure they are. For CEOs whose companies are solvent.

Memo to the next CEO to grovel for a government bailout: fly commercial!

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