Commentary: Sam Donaldson Cuts GM's Wagoner Some Slack

July 15, 2008 -- The following is a commentary by ABC News' Sam Donaldson. Click here to view a video version of his latest essay.

I like Rick Wagoner, the embattled CEO of General Motors who has announced Draconian cuts and adjustments in an attempt to save the company and do it with a confident face.

Wagoner didn't quite pull it off. He looked more like Robert E. Lee must have looked as he mounted his horse to ride to Appomattox — but then, Wagoner is not the type of CEO who does the "happy talk" well when he knows the facts are otherwise. I mean, how do you manage a big smile as you're telling retired employees you are going to end their health care insurance?

The fact is, General Motors, once the world's largest corporation, once the world's premier automaker, has fallen on hard times through its own mismanagement. For thirty years, GM kept its head in the sand as offshore competitors — think Japanese in the forefront — ate its lunch by producing cars that people wanted to buy. GM kept producing cars that it wanted to sell — they had higher profit margins to begin with, although the profits shrunk as sales dropped.

So why do I like Rick Wagoner? Because all this was not only his fault. He rose through the GM ranks in the last 15 years or so and fought to bring the company back to reality.

I discovered this when I met him right after he was promoted to CEO in 2000. Wagoner had just announced that GM would close its Oldsmobile division, a venerable name in the history of automobiles. I lit into him.

"One of the best cars I ever owned was an Oldsmobile," I protested. "How could you do this?"

"Listen," said Wagoner. "If everyone who is now telling me what a terrible thing I've done had actually bought an Oldsmobile recently, why, it would be our biggest seller and I'd be putting money into the division instead of closing it."

I liked his reasoning. I wish him and General Motors well, although the so-called smart money is saying it may be too late.

Sam Donaldson, a 41-year ABC News veteran, served two appointments as chief White House correspondent for ABC News, from January 1998 to August 1999 and from 1977-1989, covering Presidents Carter, Reagan and Clinton. Donaldson also co-anchored, with Diane Sawyer, "PrimeTime Live," from August 1989 until it merged with "20/20" in 1999. He co-anchored the ABC News Sunday morning broadcast, "This Week With Sam Donaldson & Cokie Roberts," from December 1996 to September 2002. Currently, Donaldson appears on ABC News Now, the ABC News digital network, in a daily show, "Politics Live."