So the WSJ is reporting that people are starting to suggest that GM fire Rick Wagoner.

Not just the man on the street either. Senator Dodd has explicitly called for his head, as have representatives of investor, and former GM board member, Kirk Kerkorian.

Barack Obama has also implied that there need to be management changes.

This is a no brainer. Mullaly was brought in about a year ago to turn Ford around, and Nardelli’s tenure at Chrysler (full disclosure, I worked for him, though I never met him, at GE Transportation Systems in the 1990s)^* is even shorter, so they do not bear full responsibility for the mess that their companies are in, but Wagoner has been CEO of GM for 10 years, and in charge of North American Operations for 4 years before that, so this is his baby that has come crying to Congress.

^*Yes, I have worked everywhere. Maybe I can’t hold down a job, but more likely this has been my role as “technical hit man”, where you are parachuted in to take care of a specific need.