Wagoner: a sacrifice offered up by Obama administration

Obama rejects GM and Chrysler's viabilty plans

General Motors Corp Chief Executive Rick Wagoner was forced out of his positions as part of the Obama administration's sweeping last-ditch effort to save the century-old auto giant, but analyst said Obama administration is just offering up Wagoner as a sacrifice.

"For them to change captains right in the middle of the rapids is not something GM would have done, but now (President Barack) Obama or (Treasury Secretary Timothy) Geithner can say, we've asked them to make the ultimate sacrifice," said Aaron Bragman, an analyst with IHS Global Insight.

University of Maryland economist Peter Morici, a one-time critic of Wagoner who had called for him to resign but now believes he had "started to get it," said the administration has a "PR problem" regarding unpopular corporate bailouts.

"They are bailing out just about anybody that shows up and says they need cash. The public has grown weary of it and instead of throwing a banker to the wolves they have decided to throw Wagoner to the wolves," Morici said.

Jeremy Anwyl, chief executive of the automotive Web site Edmunds.com, called the move "political theater" to appease an increasingly bailout-weary public.

"American taxpayers are not happy," Anwyl said. "But this way you're able to point to Rick and say he's gone, and that creates an environment where the loans become politically palatable."

David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich., said Wagoner's departure probably will have little impact on GM's restructuring efforts because Henderson was the heir-apparent in GM's succession plans.

"I don't think you would see any shift or significant change at all with Rick's leaving. I think the course that they're on, they're on," he said.