Byron York in the Washington Examiner on the unpopularity of the GM bailout.

In a Washington Post poll in late April, just 41 percent of those surveyed approved of Obama's handling of the automaker problem, compared to clear majorities who approved of the job he was doing in other areas. According to a detailed breakdown of a Gallup poll from the same time, people in virtually every demographic and political category looked askance at the continuing bailout of the automakers.

People of all age groups disapproved. People in every region of the country disapproved. Men disapproved. Women disapproved. People with graduate degrees disapproved. People with less than a high school degree disapproved. People who go to church a lot disapproved. People who don't go to church at all disapproved. People who make more than $75,000 a year disapproved. People who make less than $20,000 a year disapproved.

Among Republicans, 72 percent disapproved. Sixty-six percent of independents -- a group key to Obama's success -- disapproved. The only group to approve of continued bailouts to the automakers was Democrats, by 57 percent to 42 percent. On the auto issue, at least, Obama is playing to his party base and little else.

Those numbers might worsen in coming weeks. Obama knows the public doesn't want the government to run GM and Chrysler, which is why he has said hundreds of times that the government has "no interest" in running the automakers. But on Monday, at a White House event to hail the GM bankruptcy, he gave away the game when he said the feds will stay out of running GM "in all but the most fundamental corporate decisions."