Perception is as much as important as the details in the proposals submitted to our law makers by the big three auto companies for the loans to keep them afloat.

The rank and file of the Joe Six Packs have a hard time to identify with the folks who drive the Cadillacs, Lincolns, and Imperials unless they are UAW members/workers who have been assembling these behemoths for years on the production line.

What GM, Chrysler, and Ford need is some grass roots support from the general public. This type of support would influence the members of the Senate Banking Committee when the members started getting correspondence from their constituents advocating the $34 billion bailout money.

If CEO’s of the big 3 US auto manufactures, Robert Nardelli of Chrysler, Rick Wagoner of GM, and Alan Mulally of Ford would climb down from their corporate ivory towers and start hanging out at street level with the "homies" that actually purchased the cars that were built in the years past, then you would have the public behind you in the salvation of the US auto industry.

Here are some examples: Nardelli of Chrysler would look real cool driving up to DC the hearings in a 1958 Plymouth Fury like the one show in the move "Christine".

Wagoner driving a 1963 Impala Chevy low-rider doing some humping and jumping with

Black Magic Hydraulics in front of the Senate Office Building should bring the press out.

Then Mulally, driving Ford Model T like out of Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang would be a big hit with the Senator’s kids and grand kids. How could grandpa deny a few measly billions to anybody who can make a fun machine like that.

[Side Note: Driving up in an Edsel for Mulally would be worse that landing at the DC executive airport in a new Leer jet loaded with a bunch of wine, women and a marching band tumbling out of the airplane.]

The US auto giants have got to get the rank and file of the general public behind their request for a few bucks until the new "green" models hit the dealer’s showrooms.

The GM VOLT with an estimated window sticker price of about $40K will be stillborn before it hits the showrooms. This car would have to be subsidized by Uncle Sam for about $20K per unit to make it affordable for most folks even if it ran on "sunlight alone".

One of my old uncles told me that two things that I should keep in my pants. One of these things was my wallet.